{"product_id":"brenner-9781953861306","title":"Brenner","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Hermann Burger was an artist who went the whole hog every time, didn't conserve himself. He was a man with a big longing for happiness.\" --Marcel Reich-Ranicki\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eAppearing in English for the very first time, \u003ci\u003eBrenner\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eis a delightfully unusual novel full of dark humor tracing the childhood memories of the book's eponymous narrator, a scion of an ancient cigar dynasty.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePerpetually shrouded in a thick cloud of cigar smoke, Herman Arbogast Brenner, scion of an old and famous cigar dynasty, has decided to kill himself--but not until he has written down his forty-six years of life, in a Proustian attempt to conjure the wounds, joys, and sensations of his childhood in the rolling countryside of the Aargau region of Switzerland. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEstranged from his wife and two children, he decides there is no point in squirrelling away his fortune, so he buys himself a Ferrari 328 GTS, and drives around sharing cigars with his few remaining friends. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this roman à clef, writing and smoking become intertwined through the act of remembering, as Brenner, a fallible, wounded, yet lovable antihero, searches for epiphany, attempting to unearth memories just out of reach, which spring forth from memories of a red toy car, the sound of a particular chord played on the piano, or the smell of the cigars themselves. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eBrenner \u003c\/i\u003eis the final work from Hermann Burger, who died by suicide in 1989. The book publishes days before what would have been the author's 80th birthday.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Archipelago Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/05\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781953861306\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 400\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.81lbs","brand":"Hermann Burger","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42114561212597,"sku":"9781953861306","price":18.7,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_a06bada1-e8eb-401d-84bc-a50890d7a46e.jpg?v=1652152005","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/brenner-9781953861306","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}