Two Women and a Poisoning

· Sold by Penguin Group Australia
Ebook
176
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

What would it take for a woman to poison her husband? Young couple Elli and Link have been married for a year when Elli meets Gretchen, and the two soon become friends. When Elli confides in her friend about the abuse she suffers at her husband’s hands, they hatch a plan for Elli to escape. But when their efforts prove unsuccessful, the pair begin to discuss a more permanent solution to Elli’s problem: poison.

Based on a famous murder trial which took place in Berlin in 1923, this short novel by the master of German modernism, Alfred Döblin, explores questions of moral culpability and societal expectations which remain as relevant today as in the 1920s.

‘Two Women and a Poisoning—in Imogen Taylor’s sensitive translation—has much to contribute to the current search for answers to the terrible question of what brings men—and occasionally women—to kill their intimate partners.’ Australian Book Review

‘As gripping today as it was when published in 1924.’ Australian Women’s Weekly

'A slender number to churn through with bated breath.’ Fullers Bookshop

'For the reader it is as frightening as it is perplexing, as Doeblin has leapt off a true event into an all-involving piece of art.’ Otago Daily Times
What would it take for a woman to poison her husband? Young couple Elli and Link have been married for a year when Elli meets Gretchen, and the two soon become friends. When Elli confides in her friend about the abuse she suffers at her husband’s hands, they hatch a plan for Elli to escape. But w...

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About the author

Alfred Döblin (1878–1957) was a German novelist, essayist and short-story writer. He was also a doctor, practising psychiatry in working-class Berlin, the setting of both his most famous novel, Berlin Alexanderplatz, and his true-crime tale Two Women and A Poisoning. In 1933, Döblin was forced to flee Germany because of his Jewish origins and lived in France and the USA for the duration of the war.

Imogen Taylor is a translator who has lived in Berlin since 2001. Her translations include Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself by Florian Huber, Fear by Dirk Kurbjuweit and The Truth and Other Lies by Sasha Arango.
Alfred Döblin (1878–1957) was a German novelist, essayist and short-story writer. He was also a doctor, practising psychiatry in working-class Berlin, the setting of both his most famous novel, Berlin Alexanderplatz, and his true-crime tale Two Women and A Poisoning. In 1933, Döblin was forced to...

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