It’s been a long time since I have read a book in German. Der Fuchs im Hühnerstall, or translated The Fox in the Chicken-Coop, is a biting satirical novel of the government machinations and bureaucracy of Israel. I first read it when I was in my teens after it first came out in 1969. I remembered it fondly. But I lost that copy over the years. I could not find a Kindle version, so I bought a hardcover anthology of Kishon’s three novels, this being his first one.
Amitz Dulnikker is a cabinet-level politician in the Israeli government in his late sixties, at the sunset of his political career. Due to health reasons he decides to take a long vacation, incognito, in a remote village in the north of Israel, near the Lebanese border. The farm village of Kimmelquell specializes in growing caraway seeds as their product. It’s an idyllic place, with no electricity, where many inhabitants are illiterate, and where no outsiders are ever accepted. When Dulnikker and his young aide arrive they are quickly overwhelmed by the backwardness of the villagers and their dull lives. Dulnikker, ever the statesman, starts fomenting competition in the villages, primarily for his own amusement and to bring “civilization” to the poor farmers. Pretty soon, the events that he sets in motion take on a life of their own and control slips away. Eventually, he and his aide are finding themselves victims of their own instigations.
Kishon wrote originally in Hebrew, but I was not able to find any copy. The German edition was first published in 1969 by Langen Müller Verlag in Munich, translated into German by Emi Ehm.
The book has also been translated from Hebrew into English by Jacques Namiel and it appears under the title The Fox in the Chicken-Coop, published by Bronfman Publications in Tel-Aviv in 1971. However, a little research shows that while the books have the same (translated) title, they tell completely different stories. The English version is not a translation, but a completely different novel, with different characters, albeit also about political absurdities in Israel. This has confused many readers. As a result, unfortunately, it seems that there is no way to read this story in English.
Hebrew or German it must be.
