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Dear Irmgard, Child of All Nations (2008, tr. Michael Hofmann. Original: Kind aller Länder, 1938) is all about voice. Not bitter nor cheerful, but something in-between. It…… Read more “I turned her into a tree so that she would stop trembling”
Tag: Germany
A flower silence, completely unfolded,
Dear Getrud, The two prose works collected in A Jewish Mother from Berlin: A Novel/ Susanna: A Novella (1997, tr. Brigitte M. Goldstein) read like disenchanted but…… Read more “A flower silence, completely unfolded,”
Gertrud Kolmar
Gertrud Kolmar (pseudonym of Gertrud Käthe Chodziesner, December 10, 1894 – March 1943) was a German writer. Kolmar was born in Berlin as the eldest of four…… Read more “Gertrud Kolmar”
Everything, by virtue of coming into existence, is doomed to pass
Dear Ricarda, The Last Summer (2016, tr. Jamie Bulloch. Original: Der letzte Sommer, 1910) feels like a treasure chest full of letters. As we read through them,…… Read more “Everything, by virtue of coming into existence, is doomed to pass”
Ricarda Huch
Ricarda Huch (18 July 1864 – 17 November 1947) was a German writer. Huch was the youngest daughter of a wealthy merchant family, whose business was headquartered…… Read more “Ricarda Huch”
Something that was unassailable and inviolable
Dear Netty, The Seventh Cross (tr. Margo Bettauer Dembo, 2018. Original: Das siebte Kreuz, 1942) starts and ends at the same point – but, in the span…… Read more “Something that was unassailable and inviolable”
What you call sin I call the great spirit of love
Dear Christa, This story seems to have had many lives. It started as a play, first performed in 1930, in Leipzig, as Ritter Nérestan (“Knight Nérestan”), and…… Read more “What you call sin I call the great spirit of love”
Christa Winsloe
Christa Winsloe (nee Christa Kate Winsloe; married name Christa Hatvany, Christa von Hatvany, Christa Hatvany-Winsloe; December 23, 1888 – June 10, 1944) was a German sculptor and…… Read more “Christa Winsloe”
The wild muse in me
Five poems by German author Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, from the book The Wild Muse: The Poetry of Annette Von Droste-Hulshoff, edited and translated by Marion Tymms (2013) * Restlessness (Unruhe,…… Read more “The wild muse in me”
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (Anna Elisabeth Franziska Adolphine Wilhelmine Louise Maria, Freiin/Baroness von Droste zu Hülshoff, 10 or 12 January 1797 – 24 May 1848), was a German writer and composer.…… Read more “Annette von Droste-Hülshoff”
We took everything upon ourselves
Dear Sophie, What I found most interesting in the book The White Rose (1952) were the leaflets you produced and distributed, together with your brother and a group…… Read more “We took everything upon ourselves”
Sophie Scholl
Sophia Magdalena Scholl (9 May 1921 – 22 February 1943) was a German student, anti-Nazi dissident, and activist. When she was a teenager, she enlisted in the Hitler…… Read more “Sophie Scholl”
I preferred us when my father was away
Dear Birgit, The Mussel Feast, tr. Jamie Bulloch (2013. Original: Das Muschelessen, 1990) is a novella about the collapse of a man’s rule over his family during the course of an…… Read more “I preferred us when my father was away”
Birgit Vanderbeke
Birgit Vanderbeke (1956) is a German writer. Born in the DDR, she moved with her family to West Germany, in 1961. Vanderbeke studied Law, Germanic and Romance languages…… Read more “Birgit Vanderbeke”
Erika Mann
Erika Mann (Erika Julia Hedwig Mann, 1905 – 1969) was a German writer and actress. Born in Munich, she was the eldest daughter of the German novelist Thomas Mann. From…… Read more “Erika Mann”
Memories lie slumbering within us
Dear Winfried, The Rings of Saturn (tr. Michael Hulse, 1998. Original: Die Ringe des Saturn: Eine englische Wallfahrt, 1995) is beautiful, and melancholy, and strange. It is this…… Read more “Memories lie slumbering within us”
W. G. Sebald
W. G. Sebald (Winfried Georg Maximilian Sebald,18 May 1944 – 14 December 2001) was a German writer. He studied German and English literature at the University of Freiburg and…… Read more “W. G. Sebald”
Don’t ever wait for the swallows,
Dear Larissa, Your short story collection Swallow Summer, translated by Lyn Marven (2016. Originally, Schwalbensommer, 2003) made me think of tracks made of air: we might know they…… Read more “Don’t ever wait for the swallows,”
