Summary of The Brass Age
“The Brass Age” is an epic family novel that recounts the lives of Kempf and Vera, who meet after the Second World War and fall in love. Kempf is a Croat with German roots (a so called ‘Volksdeutscher’), who was forced to ‘volunteer’ in the SS during the war. He deserted when sent to fight in Poland and later joined the Russian Red Army. Vera, meanwhile, was a Croatian communist Partisan during the war. Despite their love, the weight of their past looms heavily over them.
Reasons to read The Brass Age
“The Brass Age” is a historical family saga and a tragic love story about a man and a woman destined for each other but burdened by the past. The novel offers an interesting exploration of the German-speaking communities that settled in the Slavonia region of present-day eastern Croatia from the 18th century onwards. Slobodan Snajder is a renowned Croatian playwright, novelist, and columnist. He partly based “The Brass Age” on the story of his own father. The novel has won several literary awards, including the Meša Selimović Award in 2016 for best novel from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro. Other noteworthy novels by Šnajder include “Morendo” and “The Angel of Disappearance” (the latter is set primarily in Zagreb).
Setting: Croatia & Poland
Novel set in Croatia (Nuštar in Slavonia) and Poland.
Original title: Doba mjedi
Year of publication: 2015
Nr of pages: 599
