The Son and Heir

A Memoir

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Aug 01 2020 | Archive Date Apr 07 2020
AmazonCrossing | Amazon Crossing

Talking about this book? Use #TheSonandHeir #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

A prize-winning Dutch journalist’s unsparing memoir of growing up amid the excesses, triumphs, and devastation of post–World War II Europe.

What can a son say upon discovering that his father wore a Nazi uniform? Reporter Alexander Münninghoff was only four when he found this mortifying relic from his father’s recent past in his attic. This shameful memento came to symbolize not only his father’s tragically misguided allegiance but also a shattered marriage and ultimately the unconscionable separation of a mother and son.

In this revelatory memoir, the author confronts his parents’ complex past as he reconstructs the fortunes and disillusions of an entire family upheaved during the changes of twentieth-century Europe. The Münninghoffs were driven by greed, rebellion, and rage. An embattled dynasty, they were torn between the right and the wrong side of history. Their saga haunted Alexander’s life for the next seventy years.

Only in reconciling with them can this man find the courage to move forward as son and heir to the startling legacy of a flawed yet grand tradition.

A prize-winning Dutch journalist’s unsparing memoir of growing up amid the excesses, triumphs, and devastation of post–World War II Europe.

What can a son say upon discovering that his father wore a...


A Note From the Publisher

Alexander Münninghoff was born in Posen, Poland, in 1944. A journalist and expert on Russia, he won the prize for newspaper journalism (a Dutch Pulitzer), and is the author of Tropical Years in Moscow, about his time as a correspondent in the Soviet Union. A passionate chess player, Münninghoff wrote the biographies of Dutch chess grand master Jan Hein Donner, and the chess master he dethroned, former world champion Max Euwe. In the anti-German postwar years and throughout his career, Münninghoff never told his friends or colleagues about his family, the complex chronology of which he reveals in his memoir, The Son and Heir. The book went on to win the prestigious Libris History Prize in 2015 and the Littéraire Witte Award in 2016.

Kristen Gehrman earned a master’s in language science and communication with a specialization in literary translation from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Originally from the United States, she now lives in The Hague, where she works as a freelance translator, editor, and teacher. In addition to Alexander Münninghoff’s The Son and Heir, her many translation credits include the Dutch-to-English translation of Annejet van der Zijl’s bestselling novel, The Boy Between Worlds. For more information, visit www.kristengehrman.com.

Alexander Münninghoff was born in Posen, Poland, in 1944. A journalist and expert on Russia, he won the prize for newspaper journalism (a Dutch Pulitzer), and is the author of Tropical Years in...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781542004558
PRICE $24.95 (USD)

Average rating from 8 members


Readers who liked this book also liked: