AustLit
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
A young Englishman visits Cold War Leipzig with a group of students and, during his brief excursion behind the Iron Curtain, falls for an East German girl who is only just beginning to wake up to the way her society is governed. Her situation touches him, but he is too frightened to help. He spends the next nineteen years pretending to himself that he is not in love until one day, with Germany now reunited, he decides to go back and look for her. But who was she, how will his actions have affected her, and how will he find her? All he knows of her identity is the nickname he gave her - Snowleg.
Nicholas Shakespeare's novel is a powerful love story that explores the close, fraught relationship between England and Germany, between a man who grows up believing himself to be a chivalrous English public schoolboy and a woman who tries to live loyally under a repressive regime. In her world not only is every move recorded, but a person's scent may be secretly bottled, labelled and stored away until such time as she needs to be traced. (Source: Trove)
Nicholas Shakespeare's novel is a powerful love story that explores the close, fraught relationship between England and Germany, between a man who grows up believing himself to be a chivalrous English public schoolboy and a woman who tries to live loyally under a repressive regime. In her world not only is every move recorded, but a person's scent may be secretly bottled, labelled and stored away until such time as she needs to be traced. (Source: Trove)
Notes
-
Dedication: To Niko and Brit.
-
Epigraph: My memory of your face prevents my seeing you. Rumi
-
Epigraph: On that night without sequel you realised you were a coward. Borges, 'Snorri Sturluson.'
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
[Review] Snowleg
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 29 January 2005; (p. 8)
— Review of Snowleg 2004 single work novel -
The War at Home
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The New York Times Book Review , 7 November vol. 109 no. 45 2004; (p. 23)
— Review of Snowleg 2004 single work novel -
Story De-Railed by Try-Hard Imagery
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , June no. 249 2004; (p. 30)
— Review of Snowleg 2004 single work novel -
Love and the Wall
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 261 2004; (p. 44)
— Review of Snowleg 2004 single work novel -
One Night Leads to Another
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 13-14 March 2004; (p. 11)
— Review of Snowleg 2004 single work novel
-
Edgy Study in Human Fallibility and Guilt
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 14 February 2004; (p. 2a)
— Review of Snowleg 2004 single work novel -
Uneasy Morality Play of the Day
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 13 March 2004; (p. 3)
— Review of Snowleg 2004 single work novel -
Up Against the Wall
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 16 March vol. 122 no. 6412 2004; (p. 73)
— Review of Snowleg 2004 single work novel -
Arthurian Hero Wannabe Up Against the Wall
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 March 2004; (p. 8-9)
— Review of Snowleg 2004 single work novel -
One Night Leads to Another
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 13-14 March 2004; (p. 11)
— Review of Snowleg 2004 single work novel -
Love and Betrayal Bound in Mystery
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 14 February 2004; (p. [1a])
Awards
- 2006 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- 2004 longlisted The Booker Prize
Last amended 10 Oct 2011 16:50:46
Settings:
- German Democratic Republic (1949-1990), Western Europe, Europe,
- 1960
- 1980s
Export this record