HEROD'S CHILDREN. Translated from the German by Cornelia Schaeffer.

New York: Atheneum, 1963. First American Edition. Octavo, original grey cloth lettered in gilt on spine panel.stamped in blind on upper cover, dark blue endpapers. 238 pp. A very good clean copy in the original pictorial dust jacket, slightly rubbed and scuffed, minor wear at spine tips. A pretty nice copy of this scarce book.

¶ The author's first book, Herod's Children (Die größere Hoffnung, 1948), established her as a major figure in postwar German literature. Although the book deals with the atrocities of the war and the Holocaust, its symbolism (often surreal in character), its imagery (often drawn from dreams), and its use of parable set it apart from all other similar works. Aichinger's protagonists in Herod's Children are a group of Jewish children living in Vienna during World War II. Called both "a deeply sad and pessimistic novel about the Holocaust and the human condition" and "a visionary, apocalyptic book" , Herod's Children stands as an important testimony of both Nazi atrocities and the ability of children to deal with unspeakable horror with humanity and compassion.