issue 34 - New Books in German

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Michael Fehr Kurz vor der Erlösung (The Verge of Release) Der gesunde Menschenversand, March 2013, 144pp. ISBN: 978-3-905825-51-0 Unto us a boy is born Michael Fehr’s debut is one of the most original and exciting contributions to contemporary German-language literature in recent years. The Verge of Release is already a literary sensation that is thrilling critics and audiences alike. It won the Bern Literature Prize within weeks of its publication and has also been shortlisted for the Franz Tumler Prize for the best debut novel. The Verge of Release defies categorisation along the usual literary lines. Fehr himself calls the book ‘Seventeen Sentences’ and the beautifully crafted chapters become a roundelay which tells a version of the Christian Nativity story. Each ‘sentence’ is told from a different perspective, with the focus on a different location and on a different individual or group of people: the farmer, the king, the foot soldier, the hunter, the men’s choir, Joseph and Mary. Sentence by sentence, line by line, word by word, the narrator closes in on the central event from all these different angles. In the lamplight the farmer makes an unexpected discovery in his stable; at the inn a male choir bursts into song; a king follows a star in the sky; and someone who appears to be a fisherman contemplates the icy water. Most of the chapters close with the sound of cathedral bells ringing or with cries of Hallelujah. Recurring phrases and motifs – repetitions and variations – as well as wonderful images and brilliant use of rhythm, sound and humour help to carry the reader on a breathtaking journey. The extraordinary appeal of Fehr’s writing can be partly explained by its stunningly beautiful poetic sound. Recurring phrases and images are woven into the narrative and imbue it with a haunting splendour. Fehr achieves an almost hypnotic hold on his readers through his musical diction and rhythmic repetition. This effect is a product of the author’s style of composition: instead of writing, Fehr speaks and listens and then records the fragments which come to make up the novel’s ‘sentences’. Only then is the text transcribed. Each sentence extends over several pages, with line breaks which help to convey the wonderful rhythm by suggesting the intended phrasing and pacing. Audiences have been captivated by Michael Fehr’s readings, and readers – whether reading aloud or quietly following the text – find themselves transported by this exquisite story of many voices as though they were listening to an orchestral concert. ‘The sentences create an irresistible musical maelstrom, and speak to the reader’s imagination through their visual power.’ – NZZ am Sonntag Application for assistance with translation costs: Switzerland (see page 40) © Patrick Savolainen Michael Fehr was born in Muri near Bern in 1982 and resides in Bern. Fehr played the drums for thirteen years, took percussion classes and studied business and law, but never got his degree. He then studied at the Swiss Literary Institute and at the College of the Arts in Bern, where he finished his MA in Contemporary Arts Practice. He has been part of numerous events such as the Berner Biennale and the Berner Literary Festival and has been frequently published in magazines and journals. His first publication Kurz vor der Erlösung was awarded one of the literary prizes of the canton Bern in June 2013. Fehr is one of the five authors nominated for the Franz Tumler Prize 2013. Awards and grants include the Literatur-Mentoring – Kanton Bern, the Werkbeitrag der Abteilung Kulturelles der Stadt Bern and theBEST – Trächsel-Stipendium zum Berufseinstieg. Translation rights available from: Der gesunde Menschenversand Neuweg 10 CH-6003 Luzern, Switzerland Contact: Matthias Burki Tel: +41 41 360 65 05 Email: info@menschenversand.ch www.menschenversand.ch ‘… Fehr piles up his vibrant language sculptures, honed by the stylistic devices of repetition and variation, with “Swissisms” at their glowing semantic core…’ – Der Bund Menschenversand is a publishing house fraction of Spoken Word and was founded by Matthias Burki and Yves Thomi (until 2007) in 1998. The flourishing Menschenversand survives to this day. In 2006 Menschenversand was awarded the Canton of Bern’s Förderpreis für Kulturvermittlung, and in 2007 it received the Migros-Jubilée- Award in der Sparte Literatur. 8 DEBUTS
Sarah Stricker Fünf Kopeken (Five Kopeks) Eichborn, September 2013, 512pp. ISBN: 978-3-84790-535-6 A man is not where he lives, but where he loves Sarah Stricker’s exceptional debut novel confronts the thorny issue of German-Jewish relations head-on and without any of the usual clichés. Stricker’s journalistic acumen and unswerving comic instinct combine to make Five Kopeks an unflinching and drop-dead funny family drama. Anna, the narrator of Five Kopeks, recalls her life story in a series of flashbacks. Her tyrannical grandfather’s obsession with his time as a PoW in a Soviet camp and his brutal attempts to instil a sense of duty into his ugly daughter do not sound like the ingredients of a funny novel, and yet Stricker’s gift for storytelling has the reader in stitches. The grandfather abhors superficiality and encourages his daughter’s assiduity in school while discouraging any attempts she makes to look nice. His wife surreptitiously tries to rouge her daughter’s cheeks or to give her nicer glasses but her husband always seems to have the upper hand. The ugly daughter turns out to be a child prodigy but is emotionally immature long after she becomes an adult. There are excruciatingly funny passages recounting the daughter’s first late-night disco and pubescent experiences. There is a bracing clarity in Stricker’s language as she describes how Anna’s mother denies her feelings for the man who becomes her husband and stumbles into an amour fou for the chauvinistic Russian-Jewish Alex. On one occasion she spends a night in a hotel with Alex behind her husband’s back. Nothing goes to plan and the episode is full of dramatic tension. The next morning she muses aloud about what they might call a child if they got married, and is taken aback by Alex’s revelation that, despite being a non-believer, he would never marry her because she is not a Jew. The ensuing discussion ranges across the barriers which prevent a converted Jew from being accepted as Jewish, and what it means to be Jewish in contemporary Germany Nothing feels hackneyed or predictable about this novel: not the plot, not the language and not the sex scenes that are by turns hilarious and erotic. Anna’s narration is an homage to her shrill, unconventional mother who knows less than her daughter about love and the way the world works. This is an edgy, clever work of fiction that is tragicomic in the best sense. A sample translation of this title is available on the NBG website Application for assistance with translation costs: Germany (see page 40) © Olivier Favre Sarah Stricker was born in 1980 and wrote for the taz, Vanity Fair and numerous German newspapers and magazines, such as Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Neon. In 2009, she was given a scholarship to go to Tel Aviv where she stayed to work as a foreign correspondent, reporting for the German media about Israel and the Israeli media about Germany. Fünf Kopeken is her debut novel. Translation rights available from: Eichborn Schanzenstrasse 6 - 20 D-51063 Cologne, Germany Contact: Jutta Willand-Sellner Tel: +49 221 82002683 Email: jutta.willand@eichborn.de www.eichborn.de Eichborn is the publisher of Look Who’s Back by Timur Vermes, a novel playfully asking what would happen if Hitler were alive today. It turned out to be THE German novel of the year. Published in September 2012, it instantly entered the top ranks of the best-seller list where it is still sitting (nineteen weeks as number one). Translation rights have been sold in more than thirty territories (World English: Maclehose Press/Quercus). Many works published by Eichborn have been translated into English, including A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous, The Old Child, The Book of Words and Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck, The 13 ½ Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers, W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants, The Rings of Saturn and Vertigo as well as Ice Moon, Silence and The Winter of the Lions by Jan Costin Wagner. Eichborn became a division of Bastei Luebbe, Germany’s largest independent publishing group in 2011, and continues to discover and to establish original and exciting authors’ voices. DEBUTS 9
Page 1 and 2: AUTUMN 2013 n ISSUE 34 NEW BOOK BOO
Page 3 and 4: Dear Reader, It is a real pleasure
Page 5 and 6: Helene Hegemann Jage zwei Tiger (Hu
Page 7 and 8: Ralph Dutli Soutines letzte Fahrt (
Page 9: The Amazon’s Writer-in-Residence
Page 13 and 14: Stefanie de Velasco Tigermilch (Tig
Page 15 and 16: Amanda DeMarco, publisher of Readux
Page 17 and 18: Markus Ramseier Vogelheu (Birds’
Page 19 and 20: Anna Weidenholzer Der Winter tut de
Page 21 and 22: Juli Zeh - Fighting the Tide Dear G
Page 23 and 24: A selection of books in English tra
Page 25 and 26: Ann Cotten Der schaudernde Fächer
Page 27 and 28: Judith W. Taschler Die Deutschlehre
Page 29 and 30: © Thorsten Greve Writer and transl
Page 31 and 32: Finn-Ole Heinrich / Rán Flygenring
Page 33 and 34: Johanna Rosen Liberty Bell. Das Mä
Page 35 and 36: Martin Mittelmeier Adorno in Neapel
Page 37 and 38: Jennifer Teege, Nikola Sellmair Amo
Page 39 and 40: Katharina Diel-Gligor, Wolfgang Gr
Page 41 and 42: José F. A. Oliver has been hailed
Page 43 and 44: Issue 34 - The Editorial Committee

issue 34 - New Books in German

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