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Translator Lynn Aubry Publication date 1941 Pages 353 pp OCLC 1170405 | 4.1/5 Goodreads Cover artist Emanuel Schongut Published in English 1967 Originally published 1941 Published in english 1967 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Original title Rote Zora und ihre Bande Similar The Black Brothers: A Novel in, Emil and the Detectives, Vorstadtkrokodile, The Night of Wishes, The Flying Classroom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Outsiders of Uskoken Castle is a children's novel written by Kurt Kläber. The German original, Rote Zora und ihre Bande (Red Zora and her band)), was published under the pseudonym Kurt Held in 1941. The English version was translated from German by Lynn Aubry, illustrated by Emanuel Schongut and published in 1967 by Doubleday.
Contents
The story is about the adventures of Zora and a band of children who live in the ruins of an Uskok castle on the coast of Croatia. The children steal out of necessity, because they have no parents or other family to look after them. They are frequently involved in conflicts with the town's residents and reject the authority of adults, except for Gorian, an old fisherman who helps the children. When he needs help the children repay his kindness by coming to his rescue.
Author
Kurt Kläber was a German Jewish communist living in exile in Switzerland after his arrest on suspicion of involvement with the Reichstag fire. He adopted the pseudonym Kurt Held because he was known to the authorities as a political activist, so his works could not be published under his own name.
Background of the story
Kläber traveled to Yugoslavia in 1940, where he met Branko, Zora and her band. The book is based on his experiences with these orphaned children in the Croatian city of Senj, where there is a castle called Nehaj Fortress.
In real life as in the story, the first child Kläber met in Senj was Branko, a boy who had recently been orphaned. Zora told Branko that the police were investigating him for stealing food. So Kläber was introduced to Zora. He wanted to take Branko and Zora back to Switzerland with him, but his refugee status made that impossible. Instead he wrote the children's story, intending to make it a political tool to draw attention to marginalized people in Europe. Zora became the central figure because Kläber was impressed with the way she organized the children into a band and taught them solidarity. The boys accepted her as their leader.
Title
The German title Rote Zora ... refers to Zora's red hair. The Uskoken in the English title refers to the Uskoks, a band of pirates from 16th century Senj.
Plot summary
The book recounts the children's adventures as they live by the rules of their community and come into conflict with the city's residents. It begins by introducing some of the children. Branko's father is a traveling fiddler, so Branko used to live with his mother, who worked in a tobacco plant. But she has died, leaving Branko homeless. He finds a fish on the ground at the market, picks it up and is arrested for theft. Zora frees him through the window of the prison and takes him to the castle, which the band has made their home. After passing a test of his courage, Branko is accepted into the band of outlaws along with Nicola, Pavle and Duro.
The city residents persecute the children, who play pranks on them in retaliation. In one episode the band steals a chicken from the old fisherman Gorian, who is honest, poor and works hard. Branko and Zora feel sorry for him and try to repay him with chickens stolen from the wealthy Karaman. Gorian catches them and insists that they return the stolen chickens. The children promise to help Gorian by working for him when he is short handed. They help him in his conflicts with a large fishery.
Reception
The book was originally published by the Schweizer Sauerländer-Verlag in Aarau. As of 2007 it is still published in German by the Patmos Verlagsgruppe and is in its 36th printing. It has been translated into 18 languages, although never into Croatian. The novel has been made into a film and a television series. The television series was aired on television in Croatia, but only late at night, to prevent children from seeing it, the reason being that Yugoslavia (Croatia was one of the countries of the Federation of Yugoslavia) was then a communist dictatorship and did not want attention to be drawn to its marginalized people).