Category Archives: Books in German

We would have told each other everything-Wir haetten uns alles gesagt- Judith Hermann

Posted on February 26, 2024 by mandywight

I was a keen reader of German writer Judith Hermann a little while back, loving her cool, distanced tone and elegant sentences. After a little gap since Letti Park, she’s come back into my life, through the excerpt of Wir … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in German, Memoir | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Sisters in Arms by Shida Bazyar translated by Ruth Martin

Posted on February 21, 2024 by mandywight

The writer Shida Bazyar told us at the recent Goethe Institut event that Sisters in Arms, longlisted for the German Book Prize 2021, was partly inspired by Erich Maria Remarque’s book Three Comrades. She’d been intrigued by the pull of … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in German, Books in Translation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Essays like Poetry- In Case of Loss by Lutz Seiler, translated by Martyn Crucefix.

Posted on February 7, 2024 by mandywight

Since hearing Lutz Seiler read at Sheffield’s Off the Shelf Festival last year, I’ve been keen to learn more about his home state of Thüringen in the former GDR, and in particular the uranium mines that dominated the landscape and … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in German, Books in Translation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Deutschland- Granta 165

Posted on December 29, 2023 by mandywight

It’s been such a pleasure to end the year reading this superb Granta collection. The writing includes fiction, auto-fiction, essays on culture and politics, poetry and journalism. It’s not just a collection of written pieces: there are also three series … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in German, Books in Translation | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Without Waking Up by Carolina Schutti, translated by Deirdre McMahon.

Posted on December 11, 2023 by mandywight

This novel by Austrian writer Caroline Schutti won the European Prize for Literature 2015 and has just now been published in English translation. It’s the story of Maja, brought up by a taciturn great-aunt in a rural village in some … Continue reading →

Posted in Books by Austrian writers, Books in German, Books in Translation | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Lionheart- Loewenherz- by Monika Helfer

Posted on December 6, 2023 by mandywight

What a pleasure to reconnect with the world of Monika Helfer and die Bagage- the riff-raff. Löwenherz, Lionheart, is the final novel in Monika Helfer’s family story. The trilogy starts, in die Bagage, with her grandmother, then goes on to … Continue reading →

Posted in Books by Austrian writers, Books in German, Memoir | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

East and West- Reading for #GermanLitMonth 2023

Posted on December 1, 2023 by mandywight

The real conversation in Berlin is about East and West. I was intrigued to hear this comment from American writer Lorrie Moore on the podcast Literary Friction in July. She was recommending Jenny Erpenbeck’s novel Kairos, and her words have … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in German, Books in Translation, History, Memoir, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Star 111 by Lutz Seiler translated by Tess Lewis

Posted on November 28, 2023 by mandywight

I was lucky enough to hear Lutz Seiler in conversation with Stefan Tobler of And Other Stories and Professor Adam Piette at Sheffield’s Off the Shelf Literary Festival this last October. Having read and admired Lutz Seiler’s first novel, Kruso, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in German, Books in Translation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Welten Auseinander-Worlds Apart-by Julia Franck.

Posted on November 16, 2023 by mandywight

Julia Franck is best known amongst English readers for her novel The Blind Side of the Heart, a moving family story set during the Second World War. This time, in Worlds Apart, she’s writing about her own life, though she … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in German, Memoir, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck,(translation Michael Hofmann).

Posted on November 3, 2023 by mandywight

I’m a great fan of German writer Jenny Erpenbeck. With novels like The End of Days and Go, Went, Gone, and her non-fiction collection Not a Novel, she’s acquired for me the status of public intellectual, a sort of German … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in German, Books in Translation, History, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 10 Comments