The Honditsch Cross

Austrian writer Bachmann (1926–1973), who’s best known for her 1971 novel Malina, wrote this evocative and surprising novella of nationalism and its follies when she was 18, near the end of WWII. During the Napoleonic Wars in 1813, Jakob Unterberg, the innkeeper in a Carpathain village occupied by the French, reluctantly boards enemy soldiers, while his son, Kaspar, organizes meetings for the resistance. After the Unterbergs’ young waitress, Fini, fights off a French general’s rape attempt, the general levies ruinous taxes on the villagers, who then blame Fini for not going along to get along. Fini also attracts attention from seminarian Franz Brandstetter, a farmer’s son who forfeited his rights to the family farm in exchange for a Viennese education. He’s not sure about his faith; whether he wants Fini or the older widow Vaba Mölzer, who’s also the subject of cruel gossip; or whether he should take up arms against the French. When he meets Kaspar and other members of the resistance, he feels like he’s finally found his purpose. Bachmann’s historical tale is elevated by clear-eyed insights into the impossible standards set for women and the toxic effects of groupthink. It’s an intriguing window into the early development of a master. (Apr.)