Stones from the River

Stones from the River
Cover to the paperback edition
Author	Ursula Hegi
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publisher	Poseidon Press
Publication date	1994
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	509 pp
ISBN	0-671-78075-1

Stones from the River is the 1994 novel by Ursula Hegi which chronicles the life of Trudi, a woman with dwarfism, as she navigates the violent and redemptive World War I and II era Germany in the fictional town of Burgdorf (CITE 1).

Ursula Hegi's status as a German immigrant to America informed how she wrote the novel. (CITE 1/2).

The novel received multiple accolades and became a bestseller in 1997 when it was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club (LINK) Selection. (CITE 3)

Plot

The novel begins when Trudi Montag, protagonist, is born to Gertrude Montag, a mentally-tormented woman, and to Leo Montag, a newly-returned veteran of the First World War who runs a pay-library in the fictional river-side town of Burgdorf on July 23rd, 1915 (CITE 6). Until Trudi is four years of age, Gertrude rejects Trudi as her daughter because Trudi is a zwerg, or a dwarf (CITE 6). After a miscarriage and due to increasing levels of insanity, Leo admits Gertrude to an asylum where she catches pneumonia and dies (CITE 6).

At age 5, Trudi begins to hang from doorframes, hoping to grow (CITE 6). She also becomes friends with a boy, George Weiler, whose mother dresses him in girls' clothing; their friendship is short-lived (CITE 6).

At ages 6 through 8, Trudi goes to school and faces severe social ostracization from both her classmates and her nun-teachers (CITE 6). Despite this, she excels in school and develops an aptitude for history (CITE 6). Her father buys her a dog, called Seehund, to provide her with a close companion in the absence of a sibling. Seehund attracts the attention of a classmate, Eva Rosend, and she and Trudi become friends in secret, bonding over their mutual deformities: Trudi's dwarfism and Eva's large port-wine stain (CITE 6/NOVEL). When Eva denounces Trudi, Trudi tells a townsperson of Eva's birth defect (CITE 6). Also, Trudi learns to swim in the nearby river.

At age 13, Trudi attends a carnival. One of the carnival entertainers is Pia, a well-dressed and proud dwarf woman (CITE 6). Exhilarated and feeling as though she is not alone, Trudi has a private discussion with Pia in her fabulous trailer and garners a sense of pride, wonderment, and identity for herself (CITE NOVEL). As a result, Trudi learns to sew her own clothes and Leo, her father, adjusts the household furniture to fit her body (CITE 6)/NOVEL). Not much later, Trudi is taken by four boys, including George Weiler, her childhood friend, and molested (CITE 6). When she escapes, Trudi goes to the river and calls out the names of her assailants one by one as she throws stones in to the river (CITE 6).

In the following years, Trudi slowly recovers from the assault and gets revenge by spreading lies about her assailants; these lies derail some of the lives of her assailants (CITE 6).

In 1933, Hitler is named Chancellor and the Nazis come to power (CITE 6). At age 18, Trudi sees Hitler when he visits the nearby city of Dusseldorf (SPELLING) (CITE 6). The ever-present anti-Semitic rhetoric in her town begins taking solid forms as the Christian townsfolk begin boycotting Jewish-owned businesses, holding anti-Semitic marches, and targeting their Jewish neighbours through social neglect and physical violence. Book burnings begin as some authors are labelled as indecent (CITE 6). Trudi and her father hide these outlawed books in their pay-library (CITE 6).

From 1934 to 1938, as violence against Jews increases, Trudi and her father begin to seriously consider how they can help their Jewish neighbors in their hour of need (CITE 6). More and more youths join Nazi youth groups such as Hitler-Jugend (LINK) and Bund Deutscher Mädchen (LINK) (CITE 6). Complicity, silence, and fear inform the opinions of none-Nazi townsfolk (CITE 6).

In 1942, when Trudi is 27, she and her father begin to smuggle Jews into the basement of their homestead and pay-library with the help of some trustworthy neighbors (CITE 6). Eva, Trudi's childhood friend, is arrested by the gestapo and never seen again (CITE 6). At a piano concert, Trudi makes a quiet comment about the over-use of the Nazi flag and is arrested shortly thereafter (CITE 6). After three weeks in prison, a guard interrogates Trudi and, after she tells him a story about a man with his heart outside of his chest, he lets her go with a warning (CITE 6).

Around this time, Trudi begins deceitfully answering data advertisements as a form of self-punishment for her otherness. Usually, she goes and just observes the date; once, however, she speaks to him: a man named Max Rudnik (CITE NOVEL). Months of gentle but consistent interest from Max, an anti-Nazi water colorist, results in Trudi agreeing to be with him romantically and sexually (CITE NOVEL). They admit their love for one another and share moments of happiness amidst the horrors going on around them (CITE NOVEL). When Max goes to Dresden, he dies there in a bombing (CITE 6). Trudi is heartbroken and struggles to fully accept that Max is dead (CITE NOVEL).

By 1945, the war has ended. Former Nazi townspeople deny their affiliation. The destruction of the war is slowly replaced with growth and progress, though dishonesty still reigns in Burgdorf (CITE 6).

In 1949, Trudi takes to loving Hanna, the child of other townspeople (CITE NOVEL). When her affection for the child borders on parent-like, she ruminates on her grief over Max, wondering if they might have ever had children; on account of this, Trudi distances herself from Hanna (CITE NOVEL).

Leo becomes old and frail, dying the day after his 67th birthday (CITE 6). The novel ends as grief-stricken Trudi walks along the riverside, contemplating her life, and ultimately experiencing the love of the people around her in a way as never before (CITE 6).

Characters

Trudi Montag, protagonist

Leo Montag, Trudi's father

Gertrude Montag, Trudi's mother

George Weiler, Trudi's childhood friend and eventual assaulter

Eva Strom, Trudi's childhood friend

Pia, a dwarf circus leader

Max Rudnik, Trudi's romantic interest

Hanna, a child whom Trudi loves too much

CITE 6

Background

- Knew a dwarf woman in Dusseldorf who inspired the novel (CITE 1)

- Went to Germany on a research grant (CITE 3)

- Informed also her other book, Floating in My Mother's Palm (CITE 1)

- "Ms. Hegi suggests that the routine acceptance of small scale violence against people who are considered "different" enables a nation to accept massive assaults such as the Holocaust." (PARAPHASE AND CITE 4)

- "In her acknowledgments, Hegi thanks her godmother, Käte Capelle, who "broke the silence by documenting her memories of the war years." The novel exposes the little-known reality as it was experienced by the small-town German population. It addresses the common question about how decent Germans could have allowed the Holocaust to happen." (PARAPHRASE AND CITE 6)

Reception

- Purported as her masterpiece work (CITE 1)

The Novel was nominated for a PEN/Faulkner award.↵ (CITE 3)

It was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in February 1997. (CITE 3)

Stones from the River was chosen as an Eagles selection in February 1997

	This article about a World War II novel first published in the 1990s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page.