Transit by Anna Seghers: A New Translation

Nationwide arts festival celebrating refugees from Nazi Europe and their contribution to British cultureMarch 2020 marked the official end of the festival, but also the beginning of a longer-term commitment to celebrating the impact of this remarkable generation of émigrés under the Insiders/Outsiders umbrella

Insiders Outsiders

A panel discussion to mark a new edition of Anna Seghers’ remarkable 1944 novel Transit, recently published by Virago Modern Classics

An existential, political, literary thriller first published in 1944, based partly on the author’s own experiences, <a href="https://www.virago.co.uk/titles/anna-seghers/transit/9780349014708/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Transit </a>by German Jewish Communist writer Anna Seghers explores the plight of the refugee with extraordinary compassion and insight.   Having escaped from a Nazi concentration camp in Germany and a work camp in Rouen, the nameless narrator finds himself in the dusty seaport of Marseille. Along the way he was asked to deliver a letter to Weidel, a writer in Paris whom he discovered had killed himself as the Nazis entered the city. Now he is in search of the dead man’s wife. He carries Weidel’s suitcase, which contains an unfinished novel – and a letter securing Weidel a visa to escape France.  Assuming the name Seidler – though the authorities think he is in fact Weidel – he goes from cafe to cafe looking for Marie, who is in turn anxiously searching for her husband. As Seidler converses with refugees over pizza and wine, their stories gradually break down his ennui, bringing him a deeper awareness of the transitory world they inhabit as they wait and wait for that most precious of possessions: transit papers.  Prizewinning author Stuart Evers, who wrote the introduction to <a href="https://www.virago.co.uk/titles/anna-seghers/transit/9780349014708/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">the new English edition</a>, in which he describes the novel as a ‘genuine, fully fledged masterpiece of the twentieth century; one that remains just as terrifyingly relevant and truthful in the twenty-first’, will be joined by Dr. Anthony Grenville, an expert on German exile literature, and (tbc) Christian Petzold, director of the 2018 feature film Transit.Image: Bookcover TransitThis event is free, but in order to help us continue our activities, a donation of at least £5 per booking would be hugely appreciated. To donate, click <a href="https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/support-us/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">here</a>.

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Transit by Anna Seghers: A New Translation

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Transit by Anna Seghers: A New Translation

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