Anna Seghers – författare

En natt rymmer sju fångar från koncentrationslägret Westhofen. Lägrets kommendant låter göra kors av sju plataner man nyligen beskurit. Korsen är avsedda för de sju männen sedan de infångats. Men en av männen Georg genomför rymningen trots oerhörda svårigheter. Det sjunde korset förblir tomt. Det kommer att stå som symbol för motståndet, för människans möjlighet att segra över sina förtryckare.  

Det sjunde korset, utgiven första gången 1942, är en modern klassiker; en gastkramande thriller som bidrog till att varna världen för den skrämmande verkligheten i Nazityskland. Nu i reviderad nyutgåva med förord av litteraturkritikern Jens Christian Brandt.

"Stoffet denna bok är gjord av är varaktigt och oförgängligt som föga annat på denna jord. Det kallas: rättvisa." Christa Wolf  

"Det var Seghers som efter det krig som aldrig får glömmas lärde min generation att skilja mellan rätt och fel."  Günter Grass

"Denna roman är kanske den bästa som har skrivits om Nazityskland." Lars W Freij  

"Böcker som Det sjunde korset kan kännas overkliga att läsa inom fredligt trygga väggar. Aldrig kan det lidande de är sprungna ur gå jämnt upp i konstverket och neutraliseras där. Inte heller behöver man längre läsa sådana böcker för att väckas. Men de har ändå sin givna betydelse genom att på ett levande sätt lägga fram materialet till det som framtidens hjärnor först och främst måste komma att syssla med: hur det är möjligt att inom ett kulturland hela arméer av sådana som bödlarna i Westhofens koncentrationsläger har kunnat stampas fram ur marken." Margit Abenius, Bonniers litterära magasin, Årgång XIII. 1944

"Kanske den mest betydande skildringen av spirande nazistisk mentalitet i ett aldrig från nationalismen tillfrisknat Tyskland." Günter Dallmann, Ord och Bild. Femtiofemte årgången. 1946 

''At once a suspenseful manhunt story and a knowing portrait of the perils of ordinary life in Hitler''s Germany, The Seventh Cross is not only an important novel, but an important historical document. This new, unabridged translation is a genuine publishing event'' - Joseph Kanon, author of ''The Good German'' and ''Leaving Berlin''''A masterpiece. Written in the midst of terror, but with such clarity, such acuity; Seghers is a writer of rare insight'' RACHEL SEIFFERT author of A Boy in WinterSeven prisoners escape from Westhofen concentration camp. Seven crosses are erected in the grounds and the commandant vows to capture the fugitives within a week. Six men are caught quickly, but George Heisler slips through his pursuers'' fingers. It becomes a matter of pride to track him down, at whatever cost.Who can George trust? Who will betray him? The years of fear have changed those he knew best: his brother is now an SS officer; his lover turns him away. Hunted, injured and desperate, time is running out for George, and whoever is caught aiding in his escape will pay with their life.The Seventh Cross is one of the most powerful and influential novels of the twentieth century, a tense thriller that helped to alert the world to the grim realities of Nazi Germany.''It was [Seghers] who taught my generation and anyone who had an ear to listen after that not-to-be-forgotten war to distinguish right from wrong. The Seventh Cross shaped me; it sharpened my vision'' GUNTER GRASS''A fascinating insight into life in pre-war Nazi Germany just as the horrors of the Nazi regime were beginning to unfold. This is an important novel, as much for its picture of German society as for its insight into the psyche of ordinary people confronting their personal fears and mixed loyalties'' SIMON MAWER, author of The Glass RoomIn The Seventh Cross, Seghers''s aim was to write, ''A tale that makes it possible to get to know the many layers of fascist Germany through the fortunes of a single man.'' She had four copies of the manuscript: one was destroyed in an air raid; a friend lost the second copy while fleeing the Nazis; another was found by the Gestapo; only the fourth copy survived, which, fortunately, she sent to her publisher in America just before she escaped Nazi-occupied France. Published in 1942, The Seventh Cross was an immediate bestseller and was the basis for an MGM film starring Spencer Tracy in 1944. It has been translated into more than 40 languages.Margot Bettauer Dembo''s expert new translation makes the complete text of this great political novel available in English for the first time.

INTRODUCED BY STUART EVERS: ''A genuine, fully fledged masterpiece of the twentieth century; one that remains just as terrifyingly relevant and truthful in the twenty-first''

An existential, political, literary thriller first published in 1944, Transit explores the plight of the refugee with extraordinary compassion and insight.

Having escaped from a Nazi concentration camp in Germany and a work camp in Rouen, the nameless narrator finds himself in the dusty seaport of Marseille. Along the way he was asked to deliver a letter to Weidel, a writer in Paris whom he discovered had killed himself as the Nazis entered the city. Now he is in search of the dead man''s wife. He carries Weidel''s suitcase, which contains an unfinished novel - and a letter securing Weidel a visa to escape France.

Assuming the name Seidler - though the authorities think he is in fact Weidel - he goes from cafe to cafe looking for Marie, who is in turn anxiously searching for her husband. As Seidler converses with refugees over pizza and wine, their stories gradually break down his ennui, bringing him a deeper awareness of the transitory world they inhabit as they wait and wait for that most precious of possessions: transit papers.

''This novel, completed in 1942, is in my opinion the most beautiful Seghers has written . . . almost flawless'' - Heinrich Boll