Helena Janeczek
This book, by Helena Janeczek, narrates the intense life and political commitment of Gerda Taro, the first photojournalist to die on the front line, in turbulent interwar Europe.
This novel delves into the extraordinary existence of Gerda Taro, a mythical figure whose life, though brief, was marked by unparalleled intensity. Recognized with the Strega Prize 2018 and the Bagutta Prize 2018, the work reconstructs a destiny forged in the effervescence of interwar Europe. The story begins on August 1, 1937, when an imposing funeral procession, adorned with red flags, winds through the streets of Paris. It is the last farewell to Gerda Taro, born Gerta Pohorylle in Stuttgart in 1910 and deceased in El Escorial in 1937, at the age of twenty-six, as the first female photojournalist to lose her life on the battlefield. Her early death, transformed into a symbol, moved a city and a generation. Among the crowd, in the front row and visibly affected, is André Friedman, her ex-partner and the fundamental collaborator in the creation of the legendary photographer Robert Capa, a fictional identity they both developed. Also present are friends who shared crucial moments with her: Ruth Cerf, who was her life partner in Paris after Gerda was forced to flee Nazi Germany; and Willy Chardack, a witness to Gerda's preference for Georg Kuritzkes, a young man who, like her, felt compelled to join the International Brigades to fight against fascism. In each of them, Gerda Taro left a deep and indelible mark, an echo of her vitality and convictions. Years later, a simple telephone exchange between Willy and Georg serves as a catalyst, unleashing a cascade of shared memories that form the narrative structure of this work. Rigorously documented and exhaustive, the novel illuminates the figure of a woman in whom, in just a few years, converged the effervescence of youth, an irrepressible joy of living, an innate photographic talent, and an unbreakable political commitment. All this in a historical context of deep economic crisis, the alarming rise of Nazism, relentless persecution, and the imminent threat of war, elements that forged her short but transcendent existence.
Authors: Helena Janeczek
Publication date: 26-02-2019
Language: es
Pages: 368
Rating: No data
La chica de la Leica, written by Helena Janeczek and published on 26-02-2019, is included in our catalog for information queries and ebook downloads in epub or pdf format.
Helena Janeczek (Munich, 1964) is an Italian writer of Polish-Jewish origin. She moved to Italy in 1983. In 2018, she won the prestigious Strega Prize with her novel La ragazza con la Leica (The Girl with the Leica), about the photographer Gerda Taro.
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