Recommendations

We recommend a visit to the blog of the New York Review of Books, which yesterday published David Dollenmayer's translation of Günter Grass' eulogy for his friend and colleague, Christa Wolf. Grass delivered the tribute at the Academy of the Arts in Berlin last December. He titled the eulogy What Remains, after Wolf's 1979 story of the same name, the publication of which in 1990 ignited what Grass characterizes as an unfair and hypocritical barrage of criticism against Wolf that has continued even after her death.

Austrian crime novelist Heinrich Steinfest's body of work has received great critical acclaim as well as numerous awards (including four "Deutscher Krimi Preise"). For his latest novel, Wo die Löwen weinen [Where lions weep], his publisher, Theiss, and the German literary website, literaturcafe.de, launched a 16-part podcast in which the author returns to the scene of the crimes, so to speak. The novel is set against the backdrop of the Stuttgart 21 initiative, a much contested urban redevelopment project, centered around Stuttgart's main train station, that has been in the works for over a decade. Steinfest has lived and worked in Stuttgart for the past twelve years and with this novel considers himself an "interpreter" of the project. In the podcast, the author offers insight into plot development as well as explains critical background information. This is an interesting marketing strategy that marries current events with crime fiction. Upon it's late February release, the novel entered Der Spiegel's bestseller list at #36, although what part the podcast played is not clear.

Ferdinand von Schirach has worked as a criminal defense lawyer in Berlin since 1994, representing the accused in more than 800 criminal cases. In 2009 he published his first collection of short stories, Verbrechen, which he followed with Schuld last year (both Piper Verlag).

In an interview he gave in the most recent issue of New Books in German, he talks about the influence his work has had on his writing, "When you have been a Criminal Defence Lawyer your whole life, then you have quite a stock of typesetting cases full of people, events and little episodes. And I then put these together anew for a story. The only thing that I don’t change is the basic tone of a case, the motive, the atmosphere."

After the original spent weeks on German bestseller lists, an English translation by Carol Brown Janeway, Crime: Stories (Knopf) has recently been published. In his review for the A.V. Club, Vadim Rizov praises Crime for being "compulsively readable, though sleazy" and notes that Schirach "presents a compelling portrait of Germany in flux, adjusting to a new wave of immigrants and still quietly reckoning with its history."

While Crime is available for loan via our Library, you may also enter to win a copy from the German Book Office, who selected Crime as their January Book of the Month.

UPDATE: The New York Times weighs in with a review today as well!

Looking over the list of translations we bought for the Library this year, I am struck by several things. For one, the list is considerably longer than in past years. And while there are a number of translations representing the canon of German literature - think Rilke, Kafka, Mann - I am very pleased to note a strong showing on the part of contemporary German authors. Here then, without further ado, a list of 10 of our favorite 2010 literary translations that highlight the younger generation of German writers.

Jakob Arjouni: Kismet (Kismet)
Translated by Anthea Bell
Melville House

Alina Bronsky: Broken Glass Park (Scherbenpark)
Translated by Tim Mohr
Europa Editions

Jenny Erpenbeck: Visitation (Heimsuchung)
Translated by Susan Bernofsky
New Directions

Julia Franck: The Blindness of the Heart (Die Mittagsfrau)
Translated by Anthea Bell
Grove Press

Daniel Kehlmann: Fame (Ruhm)
Translated by Carol Brown Janeway
Pantheon

Andreas Maier: Klausen (Klausen)
Translated by Kenneth J. Northcott
Open Letter

Judith Schalansky: Atlas of Remote Islands (Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln)
Translated by Christine Lo
Penguin

Ingo Schulze: One More Story (Handy. Dreizehn Geschichten in alter Manier)
Translated by John E. Woods
Knopf

Juli Zeh: In Free Fall
Translated by Christine Lo
Nan A. Talese

Check out our Library in the background of some great videos the German Book Office produced for its Fall 2010 Rights List! The one below features none other than Michael Orthofer of the Complete Review.



See more book talk videos on the GBO's YouTube Channel.

We're big fans of graphic novels at the Goethe-Institut New York Library, so I thought I'd share some recent acquisitions:

Hotel Angst
Text by John von Düffel; Illustrations by Isabel Kreitz

Isabel Kreitz's illustrations breathe new life into this 2006 John von Düffel story about the titular, formerly grand hotel on the Italian Riviera. After the death of his father, a son returns to the scene of many childhood vacations and ponders the merits of fulfilling his father's dream of reviving the hotel.

Castro
Text and Illustrations by Reinhard Kleist

Following on the success of his Johnny Cash biography, Reinhard Kleist spent several months in Cuba in 2008 gathering material for a biography of Fidel Castro. His impressions from this trip were published under the title Havanna. Written from the perspective of an exiled photographer, Castro follows the ups and downs of Cuba's most famous revolutionary.

Im Museum. Archive des Zerfalls
Text by Jan-Frederick Bandel; Illustrations by Sascha Hommer

This second Im Museum volume follows the zany adventures of a pair of siblings with a healthy dose of philosophical musings, literary references and cultural criticism thrown in for good measure. The strip ran daily in the Frankfurter Rundschau from 2007 through 2009.

Haarmann
Text by Peer Meter; Illustrations by Isabel Kreitz

Truly putting the graphic in graphic novel, Haarmann depicts the last months in the life of Fritz Haarmann, arguably Germany's most notorious serial killer. Abusing his position as a police informant in 1920s Hanover, Haarmann brutally murdered over 20 young men. Meter and Kreitz have crafted a gripping thriller that details the scandals leading up to Haarmann's eventual arrest and trial.

These and many other graphic novel titles are available for loan from our Library. You may search our catalog for exact titles using the call number (Signatur) 741.5.

Per Berlin-based translator Katy Derbyshire's excellent love german books blog comes news of today's launch of the 5th edition of no man's land, the online magazine for new German literature in English.

Katy writes, "The 5th edition presents fiction by Volker Braun, Werner Bräunig, Dietmar Dath, Johanna Hemkentokrax, Kai Gero Lenke, Siegfried Lenz, PeterLicht, Milena Oda, Gerhard Roth and Lutz Seiler and poetry by Lars-Arvid Brischke, Ulrike Draesner, Jörg Fauser, Claudia Kohlus, Fitzgerald Kusz, Marcus Roloff, Ulrike Almut Sandig and Tzveta Sofronieva."

The site also offers a wealth of information for those just getting started in literary translation. And for residents of Berlin, there is a translation lab every first Tuesday of the month. Check it out!

I've been a fan of Cornelia Funke since first getting my hands on a copy of Tintenherz some six or seven years ago. Having grown up reading fantasy novels from the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, Piers Anthony, David Eddings, Terry Brooks, and Robert Heinlein, to name but a few, I was skeptical about Funke's talents, especially given the constant comparisons to J.K. Rowling (as though there weren't any other fantasy authors worth mentioning!). My enthusiasm for Funke was admittedly slightly dampened by the truly mediocre filmic adapation, Inkheart, but that hasn't stopped me from eagerly anticipating her newest novel, Reckless. I am hard pressed to remember the last book by a German author that was released simultaneously in 12 countries in multiple languages, as Reckless was this week. Funke is currently on a US tour to promote the book, but for those of you outside of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle, you can see her read portions of the book here.