Unexploded Ordnance

Name: Unexploded Ordnance
Price: 39.95 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9781632064059

Time Fuses & Taxonomies

Catharina Coenen

$39.95

Paperback

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English

Restless Books
04 February 2026

Literary essays; Anthologies (non-poetry); Gender studies: women; Gender studies: transsexuals & hermaphroditism

WINNER OF THE 2023 RESTLESS BOOKS PRIZE FOR NEW IMMIGRANT WRITING

In imaginative prose that interrogates the past with a poet's curiosity and a scientist's pen, Unexploded Ordnance seeks to answer how we are shaped by the stories we inherit.

After moving from Germany to the US to work as a professor of biology, Catharina Coenen takes up residence in a second language to voice the questions she could not ask at home. To what extent was her grandfather implicated in World War II? What exactly did her grandmother, mother, and aunt live through? And why are women's wartime stories so seldom told? Coenen peels back generational silences to walk alongside her grandmother, who comes of age during Hitler's rise to power, watches friends disappear one by one, and flees bombing raids with her tiny daughters. Weaving reflections on language, biology, queerness, art, and memory, Coenen moves between the personal and the universal with stunning honesty and elegance.

By: Catharina Coenen
Imprint: Restless Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 180mm, Width: 139mm,
ISBN: 9781632064059
ISBN 10: 1632064057
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 04 February 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Catharina Coenen is a German immigrant to northwestern Pennsylvania, where she teaches biology at Allegheny College in Meadville. Her creative work is forthcoming or has recently appeared in The Southampton Review Online, Appalachian Heritage, Christian Science Monitor, and elsewhere.

Reviews for Unexploded Ordnance: Time Fuses & Taxonomies

""If it is the duty of the scientist to explore the natural world, Coenen does it beautifully by turning her focus to our most basic makeup: the stories we carry in our genes. We are all beneficiaries of her courage and determination."" --Restless Prize for New Immigrant Writing Judges Grace Talusan, Jiaming Tang, and Ilan Stavans