"Auslander - the German word for "outsider". In this novel, four women explore the many ways one can be an outsider geographically, culturally and emotionally. The women, with highly individual voices and viewpoints, chronicle the life of the Jahn family in the close-knit German community of Schoenberg, Texas, during the '60s, '70s and '80s. From their counterpoint dialogues, we are drawn into the family's marriages and separations, births and deaths, business failures, and moments of joy.". "The voices we hear are from Queenie, matriarch of the family and wife of Benno; Carol Anne, the bride of Queenie's son, Fritz; Vera, the niece Queenie and Benno tried to raise as a daughter; and Sheila, Carol Anne's cabaret-singing mother from Houston. Fritz Jahn, young, ambitious, and reserved, with a strong sense of tradition and family life, is the center who binds these women together."--BOOK JACKET.