The Enduring Impermanence of Jenny Erpenbeck

The architect builds a house on that land in the 1930s and expands his property by buying the neighboring plot, along with its boathouse and access to the water, at an exploitative price from the Jewish owners who are trying to raise money to flee Germany. [...]of Days, time is not only linear, in that it chronicles the twentieth century, and cyclical, in that life cycles repeat across generations; it is also reversible, as the protagonist is repeatedly brought back to life. After arriving home from visiting a friend's archaeological dig that exposed underground passageways beneath what is now Alexanderplatz, Richard sees on the evening news that African refugees had gathered in front of Berlin's city hall, on a hunger strike in a desperate attempt to receive assistance from the city. Erpenbeck's novel is the culmination of thorough research, interviews with refugees in Germany, intense study of European migration law, and a reflection of action that Erpenbeck herself has taken to assist refugees, all of which gives us insight into the opaque bureaucratic system of asylum in Europe and the difficult lives of the displaced.