2024-4-26

在書店裡撿到了一本舊書，是德國作家Hans Peter Richter（1925-1993）於1961年寫的《Friedrich》的英文版。

老實說，這本書寫得不錯，文筆細膩，跳躍式敘事，翻譯得也淺顯易懂，薄薄得一小本，堪輿安娜日記媲美。所以能夠一口氣讀完，欲罷不能。裡面的場景，希特勒治下的德國人上世紀30年代對於猶太人的集體迫害和抄家，在我們中國60年代文革的時候都似曾相識。這和目前中國的現狀也不無聯繫，所以孔子說，危邦不入，亂邦不居，該潤得時候就潤。而且網上現在還賣中文版，厚厚的一大本。只是不知道翻譯得怎麼樣，以及值不值得一讀。

• My son read this in 6th grade and it is a book about the Holocaust - it was a great read and thought provoking. Hans Peter Richter’s Friedrich tells the story of two boyhood friends between 1925 and 1942. They are the same age and live in the same block of flats, so they know each other well. Friedrich Schneider is Jewish. At the beginning of this story, Friedrich's father has a good job and his family is comfortably off. Friedrich's friend, who narrates the story, is poor. His father is unemployed. The narrator of the novel — Friedrich’s friend and an unnamed Christian — tells of the horror that befell Friedrich’s family as the monstrosity of the Third Reich loomed over their lives. While the narrator is able to observe as an outsider who is witness to the tragedy from a position of relative safety, Friedrich is swept along by unpredictable events that are never in his control.

小不點兒們這個周末的閱讀與寫作課，就是它了。