German --> English
Simon Strauss: SEVEN NIGHTS (Rare Bird Books, 2019)
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Press: "The text correlates with the mission of its author: unashamedly straight, with neither safety net nor an easy way out." ―Rolling Stone "What a passionate, fearless book, steeped in tradition, greedy for the future―a book that wages war against serenity. Against the weariness of those who follow the footsteps of others. Who repeat life. A polemic for the open heart!" ―Volker Weidermann, literary critic "You soon realise that Seven Nights is a highly Romantic book. [..] And of course pure, sheer, true Romanticism is a very original escape from the stifling system of self-referentiality." ―Die Zeit About the book: It’s night time, and a young man sits writing at a table. He’s afraid. Afraid of having to decide—on a woman, a group of friends, an annual holiday destination. He’s afraid of becoming numb to emotion. Afraid of growing up. But all of that is about to change. When an acquaintance makes him a proposition, our unnamed protagonist is drawn into a scheme where each night at seven o’clock, he must commit one of the seven sins—a task that forces him to decide how far he is truly willing to go in his efforts to stave off habit and ennui and save his own life. The most reviewed, discussed, and recommended German language debut of the last decade, Seven Nights has earned Simon Strauss praise as “one of the greatest talents of his generation” by the Tagesspiegel newspaper and also one of the most controversial. |
Olga Grjasnowa: ALL RUSSIANS LOVE BIRCH TREES
(Other Press, 2014)
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ALL RUSSIANS LOVE BIRCH TREES has been nominated for the 2016 Impact International Dublin Literary Award.
Press: “All Russians Love Birch Trees by Olga Grjasnowa is an astounding debut novel, both political and personal, sexual and full of grief. It captures beautifully and viscerally what it’s like to lose your home due to traumatic events, what it’s like to be neither a tourist nor a native no matter where you go looking for what’s missing in you. To paraphrase Yevtushenko’s famous line – borders are scars on the face of the planet. This book proves it, and how.” —Ismet Prcic, author of Shards, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year “Olga Grjasnowa paints a searing portrait of young adulthood in this ambitious novel, as we follow her characters from Frankfurt to Jerusalem, from their haunted pasts and into their uncertain futures. Darkly funny and totally devastating, All Russians Love Birch Trees will haunt you.” —Leigh Stein, author of The Fallback Plan "A thoughtful, melancholy study of loss." --Kirkus "[A] provocative first novel." --O Magazine “[Grjasnowa] reveals herself to be an expert chronicler of modern displacement and of the scars left by the wars that followed the Soviet Union’s breakup.” --Publishers Weekly “An extremely compelling read… just because you have an unusual background, doesn't mean you know how to tell a good story, and this is something that Grjasnowa certainly knows how to do…Grjasnowa has strong voice, which she has applied to a very ambitious and seemingly personal subject, to give us an admirable debut novel…a truly gifted writer…[who] has a very bright future ahead of her...”--Yahoo! Voices “We know about the immigrant perspective from an American perspective, but Grjasnowa gives us a fresh, important understanding from the European perspective…Grjasnowa tells her story effectively because she works through the personal, which results in a touching and thought-provoking debut novel.”--Library Journal "Grjasnowa elegantly balances explanations and demonstrations so that Masha's world comes to feel almost familiar. All Russians Love Birch Trees is part of a new global literature that sees foreignness as a condition of familiarity, that understands alienation as a way of life." --Shelf Awareness About the book: Mascha is a cosmopolitan polyglot—fluent in five languages and able to get by in several others—living in Frankfurt with her boyfriend, Elias. Her best friends are Muslims struggling for residence permits, and her unemployed parents rarely leave the house except to compare petrol prices. Mascha has nearly completed her studies to become an interpreter, when suddenly Elias is hospitalized after a serious injury. In fright and despair, she flees to Israel, and before long, her past catches up with her in the most brutal way. Olga Grjasnowa has a unique gift of seeing the funny side of even the most tragic situations. With cool irony and a pointed style, her debut novel, which was shortlisted for the prestigious Aspekte-Literaturpreis in 2012, tells the story of a headstrong young woman who knows neither borders nor limits. She inhabits a world where all cultures and traditions merge. For Mascha and her friends, the issue of origin and nationality is immaterial—they can survive anywhere. But there is nowhere they can really call home. |
English --> German
