| Author | Martin Walser |
|---|---|
| Original title | Brandung |
| Translator | Leila Vennewitz |
| Language | German |
| Publisher | Suhrkamp Verlag |
Publication date | 1985 |
| Publication place | West Germany |
Published in English | 1987 |
| Pages | 319 |
| ISBN | 3-518-03570-3 |
Breakers (German : Brandung) is a 1985 novel by the German writer Martin Walser. It was published in English translation by Leila Vennewitz in 1987. [1]
Helmut Halm is a German professor who teaches for a year at the Washington University in Oakland, a fictionalised version of the University of California. He socialises with colleagues in the German department and is approached romantically by a female student. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Richard Eder of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Walser gives a German spin to a genre that has been an British speciality, portraying a foreigner at an American college, and called the story a comedy of manners with "more wit than comedy". Eder wrote that Walser's "Germany is soulless, materialistic, technocratic and loud-mouthed", and the main character in Breakers "is a man who tries to be these things but fails". [1]
The book received the 1989 German Literary Prize from the American Translators Association. [6]