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'Like the best true life adventures, the story of Werner Pelz is stranger than fiction. Forced to flee Nazi Germany for being Jewish, he was then interned in England for being German. Shipped to Australia on the notorious HMT Dunera, he spent two years in internment camps in Hay and Tatura. After returning to Britain, his life evolved into a spiritual quest that led him to become an Anglican vicar, to author popular books (including God Is No More), to frequently appear on the BBC, and to become a Guardian columnist. Decades after his wartime Australian exile, he returned to teach Sociology at La Trobe University, continuing his search for a new way of thinking, a new mythology.
'In the mid-1980s, a young university student, Roger Averill, was taught by this quietly charismatic man. The two developed an unlikely friendship, one that was to last until Werner's death, after which Roger's research unexpectedly revealed a deeper dimension —a personal life filled with familial drama, pain and poignancy.
'Both memoir and biography, Exile: The Lives and Hopes of Werner Pelz is a compelling account of a remarkable man's life-long search for a truth unbound by orthodoxy. It is also a lyrical evocation of an abiding friendship in which a teacher and a student share the lessons of love and loss, discovering that while the questions they ask have no answers, the act of asking them creates a meaning of its own.' (From the publisher's website.)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Werner Pelz : Listening to the Unspoken
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 350 2013;
— Review of Exile : The Lives and Hopes of Werner Pelz 2012 single work biography -
De Kretster Lands Double in Premier's Awards
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The West Australian , 17 September 2013; (p. 6-7) -
Werner Pelz in Exile
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Arena Magazine , April-May no. 123 2013; (p. 56-57)
— Review of Exile : The Lives and Hopes of Werner Pelz 2012 single work biography -
Moving Memoir
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 29 September 2012; (p. 26)
— Review of Exile : The Lives and Hopes of Werner Pelz 2012 single work biography -
Acts of Faith and Doubt
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 18 August 2012; (p. 29)
— Review of Exile : The Lives and Hopes of Werner Pelz 2012 single work biography
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Acts of Faith and Doubt
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 18 August 2012; (p. 29)
— Review of Exile : The Lives and Hopes of Werner Pelz 2012 single work biography -
Moving Memoir
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 29 September 2012; (p. 26)
— Review of Exile : The Lives and Hopes of Werner Pelz 2012 single work biography -
Werner Pelz : Listening to the Unspoken
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 350 2013;
— Review of Exile : The Lives and Hopes of Werner Pelz 2012 single work biography -
Werner Pelz in Exile
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Arena Magazine , April-May no. 123 2013; (p. 56-57)
— Review of Exile : The Lives and Hopes of Werner Pelz 2012 single work biography -
De Kretster Lands Double in Premier's Awards
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The West Australian , 17 September 2013; (p. 6-7)
Awards
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cGermany,cWestern Europe, Europe,
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cUnited Kingdom (UK),cWestern Europe, Europe,
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cAustralia,c