The Twilight World

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Herzog, Werner, Fiction / Herzog, Werner
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch, Pittsfield Branch, Traverwood Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Herzog, Werner	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Herzog, Werner	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Herzog, Werner	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Herzog, Werner	4-week checkout	Due 05-14-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Herzog, Werner	4-week checkout	Due 05-03-2024

"Originally published in German as Das Dämmern der Welt by Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, München"--Title page verso.
"Werner Herzog, one of the most revered filmmakers of all time, in his first book in many years, tells the story of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who continued to defend a small island in the Philippines for twenty-nine years after the end of World War Two In 1997, Werner Herzog was in Tokyo to direct an opera. His hosts there asked, whom would you like to meet? He replied instantly: Hiroo Onoda. Onoda was a former solider famous for having quixotically defended an island in the Philippines for decades after World War II, unaware the war was over. At their meeting, Herzog and Onoda spoke for hours, and together began to unravel Onoda's incredible story. At the end of 1944, on Lubang Island in the Philippines, with Japanese troops about to withdraw, Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda was given orders by his superior officer: Hold the island until the Imperial army's return. Defend the territory with guerilla tactics at all costs. There is only one rule: you are forbidden to die by your own hand. In the event of capture, give the enemy all the misleading information you can. Onoda dutifully retreated into the jungle, and so began his long campaign. Soon weeks turned into months, months into years, and years into decades. And all the while Onoda continued to follow his orders, surviving by any means necessary, at first with other soldiers, and then, finally, all alone in the jungle, like a phantom, becoming one with the natural world. Until eventually time itself seemed to melt away. In The Twilight World, Herzog immortalizes Onoda's years of absurd yet epic struggle, recounting his lonely mission in an inimitable, hypnotic style-part documentary, part poem, and part dream-that will be instantly recognizable to fans of his films. The result is something like a modern-day Robinson Crusoe: nothing less than a glowing, dancing meditation on the purpose and meaning we give our lives"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

As great as Herzog's filmmaking submitted by severian on July 14, 2022, 7:23pm Herzog says he found his medium with this novel, but he's been crafting beautiful and haunting sentences his entire career. Here he just found a way to put them together without moving pictures to accompany them. This is a book about nature, madness, and the choices we make that seem logical in context, but taken in sum lay bare the myth of rational actors. The jungle is the backdrop to the fever dream of Herzog's prose. I found this book quietly disturbing and worth thinking about long after it was over. If you're a Herzog fan, check it out!