Heinrich Böll and Ireland

Nobel Prize winning author Heinrich Boll's Irisches Tagebuch (Irish Journal) which was first published in 1957, has been read by millions of German readers and has had an unsurpassed impact on the German image of Ireland. But there is much more to Heinrich Boll's relationship with Ireland than the Irisches Tagebuch. In this new book, Boll scholar Gisela Holfter carefully charts Heinrich Boll's personal and literary connections with Ireland and Irish literature from his reading Irish fairytales in early childhood, to establishing a second home on Achill Island and his and his wife Annemarie's translations of numerous books by Irish authors such as Brendan Behan, J. M. Synge, G. B. Shaw, Flann O'Brien and Tomas O'Crohan. This book also examines the response in Ireland to Boll's works, notably the controversy that ensued following the broadcast of his film Irland und seine Kinder (Children of Eire) in the 1960s. Heinrich Boll and Ireland offers new insights for students, academics and the general reader alike.