Chicken Soup with Tears

‘One ignores market forces or the popular will at one’s peril’ is the opening line of ‘Chicken Soup with Tears’. This first sentence definitely set me on a slow yet eager journey through Alan Walters’s novel. It also reconnected me with my own experience of professional absurdity and the rebirth that followed. ‘Chicken Soup with Tears’ tells the story of two personal acts of defiance against the absurdity and everyday violence of their respective worlds: the Holocaust and the education system. The stories of Mendel and Zenon intertwine in a dual and fluid narrative. They illustrate how recognizing our vulnerability and accepting our finitude can set us free. Mendel and Zenon do not delude themselves; they do not seek meaning where there is none, and they choose to live. Alan Walters offers an intimate and human take on Albert Camus’s ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’. They both remind us of our tragic fates: ‘Life is absurd, so it must be reinvented’. ‘How to choose one’s life?’ from A to Z (as in Zenon) … so to speak.

"Chicken Soup with Tears" by Alan Walters is a beautifully written and meticulously crafted novel. Walter's sensitive drawing of the two central characters shows real understanding of people who find themselves in difficult situations and have to battle on because there is no alternative. The descriptions of the cruelty to the Jewish people by Nazi sympathisers is heart wrenching. Walter's considerable historical knowledge is carefully woven into the storyline and his clever handling of parallel stories means that the reader wants to keep turning the pages. An amazing read - the first of many I hope.

Chickensoup with tears ist ein beeindruckender, packender Roman. Zwei Erzählungen, zwei Lebensgeschichten zu unterschiedlichen Zeiten durchlebt, jedoch auf wunderbar elegante Art und Weise durch den Erzählstil des Autors verwoben. Kurz gehaltene Kapitel im permanenten Wechsel zwischen den Narrativen lassen die unterschiedlichen zeitlichen Ebenen miteinander verschmelzen und bauen damit eine Spannung auf, die es unmöglich macht diese Lektüre, trotz der anspruchvollen Thematik, zur Seite zu legen. Die sorgfältig bildhaft, ja szenisch beschriebenen Situationen, Orte und Personen erzeugen ausdrucksstarke Bilder beim Lesen. Ein lesenswerter Roman, dessen cineastiche Umsetzung sich nahezu aufdrängt. Jutta, Dresden

Un récit poignant de deux hommes, voisins de bureau et collègues, mais dont la relation est en réalité bien plus profonde qu'ils ne l'imaginent. Les événements, qui se déroulent à des époques différentes, et les descriptions saisissantes captivent le lecteur par leur langage évocateur, leur suspense et même leur humour, le tout sur fond de lutte désespérée et brutale pour la survie menée par la population juive européenne sous le Troisième Reich. Un récit poignant et authentique qui se déploie dans toute sa complexité.

Two people, one searching for answers to the mundane challenges of professional life as a teacher, the other desperately seeking survival amidst the Nazis' gruesome killing machine of the Holocaust. The intersecting points of their lives, though shifted in time, are skillfully woven together. The vivid language develops each moment of the story into a captivating, gripping narrative that unfolds in all its multifaceted glory.