Book by UNCA Professor Receives Prestigious National Award

A recent book by UNC Asheville Assistant German Professor Elizabeth Snyder Hook has been named an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice, the journal of the Association of College & Research Libraries. The 38th annual list includes 628 titles in 54 disciplines and subsections. Snyder Hook’s book, "Family Secrets and the Contemporary German Novel: Literary Explorations in the Aftermath of the Third Reich," was one of only three titles selected in the German studies category.

Called the "best of the best" in published scholarship, each year Choice names Outstanding Academic Titles selected from some 6,600 works reviewed in the journal annually. Choice editors apply several criteria when choosing a book for the prestigious listing, including overall excellence in presentation and scholarship, originality and value to both specialists and non-specialists. According to Choice editors, titles selected for the award stand out as "being of permanent value or of such topical importance that they belong in every academic library."

Snyder Hook’s book focuses on representations of familial conflict in German and Austrian prose of the last 25 years. At the heart of these novels is the collision between the bonds of family and the events that formed the decisive turning points of our age: National Socialism, the World War II and the Holocaust. Snyder Hook examines five novels in detail and explores the questions of guilt, cultural identity and atonement in the realms of intimate personal relationships and the national political arena.

Snyder Hook, who holds a doctorate from Harvard University, joined UNCA’s faculty in 2000. "Family Secrets and the Contemporary German Novel" is her first book.

Media Contacts:

• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526