Stefanie Zweig (1932–2014)

Review contains spoilers for both books of the series

The first book of this autobiographical duology, "Nowhere in Africa", tells the story of the Redlich family's time in Kenya. While most of the names were changed, it is very similar to the author's own life story.
The Redlich family are a Jewish family from Silesia who fled the Nazi terror to Kenya. While the parents feel lost and helpless, worry for the safety of the family members and friends who were not able to leave Germany, and cannot feel at home in Kenya, their daughter Regina has almost no memory of life in Germany. She speaks Swahili and Kikuyu, loves the landscape and wilderness of the farm, and feels at home with the Kikuyu people. Her mother, Jettel, finally gets used to their new life when she spends more time in Nairobi and makes friends, but her father, Walter, remains homesick. In the end of the novel, after the war has ended, he secures a position in Frankfurt as a judge. Although it's her biggest wish to stay in Kenya, Regina has to bid farewell.

"Irgendwo in Deutschland" starts with the family's arrival in Frankfurt. The beginning of their new life there is not as they hoped for: The city is in ruins, it is very hard to find even the smallest or simplest lodgings, they suffer from hunger and there is still antisemitism which they encounter on the streets.
It was interesting and emotional for me to read about these early days after the war and the hardships the family faced. While I don't want to liken my own family's plight to them in any way, I still thought of the stories my grandparents and parents told me. One aspect of this is the hostility against the people who were displaced from the east, such as my family. The Redlich family, being Jewish and from Silesia, were thus doubly affected by discrimination and it made their lives all the more difficult.
There are a few lengthy parts in this and some events are told very extensively while other things, that would have interested me more, are only mentioned hastily. Some chapters deal heavily with Walter's job, although to me it would have been much more interesting to learn more about Regina's experiences at school. But it gets more interesting again in the second part of the novel.
While Walter finds fulfillment in his occupation and is able to help other Jewish and displaced people, it is much harder for Jettel who did not want to return to the country of the people who killed her mother and sister. Every time she encounters an antisemitic slur, all the wounds start to bleed again.
Thus, the story continues: With a lot of heartbreak, but also with hopeful and even happy moments - finding new and bigger lodgings, being able to finally buy a house, the first trips to the Harz Mountains and later to Austria and Switzerland. People turning up who they thought they would never see again. Spending evenings with old friends from Silesia and revelling in memories. Gaining a victory when finally being brave enough to stand up to a Nazi insulting them.
This is how Regina grows up, but inside her, there are the memories of Kenya, ever present and ever calling to her. Because of that, it's ultimately a novel about belonging, about what makes a home and about how you deal with the past and how it shapes your identity.
I cannot remember the last time I cried so hard over the pages of a book, but I am so thankful to Stefanie Zweig for sharing her story.… (mere)

Last year, I reread Stefanie Zweig's Nirgendwo in Afrika ("Nowhere in Africa", also adapted to an Oscar-winning film, although as far as I know it's not very faithful to the novel - I haven't watched it so far, so cannot say). I had first read it as a teenager and had not enjoyed it at all, but I think I simply wasn't ready for that kind of writing at the time. This time, I fell in love with Zweig's beautiful prose and her way of characterizing her protagonists.
Ein Mundvoll Erde is a very similar story, but written for teenagers. It was Zweig's very first novel set in Kenya, and after its success, she gained the courage to write about her experiences for an adult audience as well.
The titles translates as A mouth full of earth and relates to a pledge young Vivian performs with her Kikuyu friend Jogona: They are friends. This friendship is central to the story told in this novel - apart from that, the key elements are the same as in Nowhere in Africa: Vivian and her father, who are Jewish, have fled Nazi Germany to Kenya where they live on a farm. Vivian's father, a lawyer, works as a farm manager without having any knowledge of farming. While he is homesick, worries for the safety of his family and cannot feel at home in Kenya, missing his old life every day, Vivian has almost no memory of life in Germany and even hates the topic because it makes her father sad. She speaks Swahili and Kikuyu, loves the landscape and wilderness of the farm, and, spending most of her time with Kikuyu children and the people working on the farm, she soon speaks and thinks like them. While her father is helpless like a child, she navigates both cultures with ease and often feels much closer to the staff than to her father.
This situation, based on Stefanie Zweig's own childhood, is the same as the one in Nowhere in Africa, the only exception is the role of the mother, who is absent in Ein Mundvoll Erde.
This novel covers several years and concentrates mostly, but not exclusively, on Vivian's and Jogona's friendship over the years. In the beginning I was a bit disappointed because it was a little too fragmented, with lots of very short episodes, feeling a bit jumpy. In the second half, though, Zweig really finds her voice, the text becomes very consistent, and the language is exceptional in depicting Vivian's thoughts and feelings - thinking and feeling like an African girl who is at home on the farm and doesn't want to leave for a country that is foreign to her and that she doesn't remember. This exile in Kenya doesn't feel like an exile to her - it is all she has ever known, it's her life.
While this story is not as deep and grand as Nowhere in Africa, I'm still not sure if it would really work for teenagers, especially nowadays, forty years after it was originally published. Apart from that, it was again a story that gripped me and touched me, and made me reflect on the topic of home and what home is to different people.… (mere)