Reunion

“A daring miracle of narrative simplicity, [Reunion’s] end comes at you like a torch in a long tunnel. All is black, calamitously beyond words, and yet the eye, swiftly followed by the heart, is drawn to it: at last, a circle of light. Even if history cannot be rewritten, Uhlman tells us, a life may sometimes have more than one act.” –The Guardian “Eloquent … Written in English by artist Fred Uhlman, who fled his homeland in 1933, Reunion is as perfect as it is powerful.” –The Irish Times

“Describes the deepest and most profound friendship between two boys … who are ultimately separated by history … Devastating.” –The Times (London)

“Still somehow Reunion remains a secret … . Word of mouth still passes it, like the discovery of a hidden gem, from astonished reader to reader. So many readers know and love it as the classic it is and yet somehow it continues existence under the radar, a constant source of surprise to anyone happening across it for the first time. But then, surprise is a core part of its perennial gift. It’s a novella whose slimness belies its heft. Its impact is stunning.” –from the Introduction by Ali Smith

Fred Uhlman, born in Stuttgart in 1901, claimed that his South-West German homeland of W rttemberg, made him a “romantic” for life and formed the essence of his sensibilities as a poet. Understandable since it was also the home of Schiller, H lderlin, M rike, Weiland, Uhland, Schlegel, Hegel, Schelling and Herman Hesse. Uhlman’s name is not out of place among these, and the beauty of that birthplace illuminates every line of his stunning fictional memoir Reunion. He died in 1985.