"Kolleritsch's novel investigates Austria's relationship to National Socialism through the eyes of Joseph Algebrand, whose adolescent experiences during the war years in rural southern Austria continue to impact his life and that of his homeland years after its end. The insidiousness of an ideology that required strict uniformity and stifled expression is contrasted to the main character's innate attempt to preserve his own individuality and the uniqueness and variety of nature. Allemann, Joseph's teacher at the school he attends and himself a member of the Party, becomes a victim to its principles; his physical deformities and intellectual perversion cast him outside the desired mold. Kolleritsch transforms what might appear to be a timeworn "historical" theme into a semi-autobiographical statement about the present as the evil from the past latently and semiconsciously pervades the present. The scars on Joseph's body from his past are rediscovered in the virtually unreformed lives of his fellow countrymen."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved