The latest addition to my website is Daniel Kehlmann‘s Lichtspiell [Cinema]. The book gives us episodes from the life of Austrian film director G. W. Pabst, who discovered Greta Garbo, Louise Brooks and Leni Riefenstahl. We follow his career in the US and Germany/Austria. Twice he timed his return to Europe badly. The first time … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Gervasio Posadas‘ El mentalista de Hitler The Clairvoyant. This is the story of the very real Erik Jan Hanussen. He was an Austrian Jew but pretended to be the son of Danish aristocrats. He had had some success as a clairvoyant/hypnotist but his fame increased when he predicted … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Mithu Sanyal‘s Identitti (Identitti). The book is narrated by a German-born blogger (Polish mother, Indian father), Nivedita Anand, who talks to Kali (the goddess) in her blog about racism, identity politics and related issues, Her mentor, to whom she is devoted, is Saraswati who teaches and writes about … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Clemens Meyer‘s Als wir träumten (While We Were Dreaming). This was the first of his novels published in German but the second to be published in English. It follows the lives of a group of boys/young men in the deprived areas of Leipzig, starting shortly before the fall … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Nino Haratischwili‘s Mein sanfter Zwilling (My Soul Twin). Stella’s parents divorced when she she was six and she and her sister went to live with her father’s Aunt Tulia, as their mother had gone to the USA with her boyfriend. They were joined by Ivo, son of their … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Esther Kinsky‘s Rombo (Rombo. This is another wonderful book from Esther Kinsky, this one giving an account of the 1976 Friuli earthquake and, in particular giving the accounts of seven people from an affected village. Kinsky lets them tell their stories – what life was like before the … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Ulrike Almut Sandig‘s Monster wie wir (Monsters Like Us). The novel is narrated by Ruth, now a successful violinist to her almost invisible (in this novel) Finnish boyfriend Voitto. Ruth grew up in East Germany where she met Viktor at school and the two became friends. However, they … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Hans von Trotha‘s Pollaks Arm (Pollak’s Arm). Ludwig Pollak was a very respected Jewish Austro-Czech classical archeologist and dealer, who spent much of his adult life in Rome and is best-known for finding the missing arm of the famous sculpture Laocoön and His Sons. This book recounts the … Read more
Latest on my website: Jens Bjørneboe‘s Frihetens øyeblikk (Moment of Freedom) This is a thoroughly grim account by a forty-six year old Norwegian, living in a remote Alpine part of Germany called Heiligenberg, who cannot remember his own name. He works in a menial position for a court and is writing a History of Bestiality … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Karen Duve‘s Regenroman (Rain). Leon Ulbricht is an unsuccessful writer when his friend Harry Klaamt gets him the job of writing a biography of Harry’s boss, Benno Pfitzner, a former boxer and current pimp and thug. With the advance, Leon, with his docile but attractive wife Martina, buys … Read more