Heatwave in Berlin

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Heatwave in Berlin
AuthorDymphna Cusack
LanguageEnglish
PublisherHeinemann, Melbourne
Publication date
1961
Media typePrint Hardback & Paperback
Pages268 pp
Preceded byThe Sun in Exile 
Followed byPicnic Races 

Heatwave in Berlin (1961) is a novel by Australian writer Dymphna Cusack.[1]

Plot summary[edit]

Australian Joy von Muhler is returning with her husband Stephen to Berlin, in the early 1960s, to visit his family. The pair have been married for 10 years after Stephen migrated to Australia following World War II. They return to a Berlin still struggling with damage caused in the war, and to a wealthy family still hiding secrets about their war-time involvement.

Reviews[edit]

A reviewer in The Canberra Times was not impressed with the novel: "Dymphna Cusack's new documentary novel, Heatwave in Berlin, has the pace, the excitement and something of the basic hollowness of a thriller...What it makes as a novel, however, is something which cannot be taken very seriously. The characters have the larger-than-life quality of figures in a melodrama, and they speak with something of the same staginess."[2]

Publishing history[edit]

After its initial publication by Heinemann in Australia in 1961[3] it was then republished as follows:

  • Readers Book Club, Australia 1962[4]
  • Pan, UK, 1963[1]
  • Cedric Chivers, UK 1972[1]

The novel was also translated into Norwegian, French, Danish, Dutch, and German in 1961, Hungarian and Russian in 1962, Bulgarian in 1963, Romanian and Estonian in 1964, Albanian in 1965, and Uzbek in 1971.[1]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Austlit - Heatwave in Berlin by Dymphna Cusack
  2. ^ "Theme that lacks conviction", The Canberra Times, 13 May 1961, p14
  3. ^ "Heatwave in Berlin (Heinemann)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  4. ^ "Heatwave in Berlin (Readers Book Club)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 19 March 2024.