Reading German Books in 2020 discussion

Dufour again for me, but this year I will read 5 in German.

1 All the Land - Jo Lendle 3.5 stars

2. Die Winterreise - Wilhelm Müller 5*

This wasn’t on my radar at the beginning of the year, but a short discussion of Schubert’s song cycle in Marcus Sedgwick’s snow sparked my curiosity. This Insel-Bücherei edition augments Müller’s heartbroken poetry with paintings by German Romantics. 😍😍😍 There’s also an afterword by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who performed the song cycle over a hundred times. Plenty of opportunities to hear him for free on Youtube. Listening to him sing, reading the poems and enjoying the paintings was / is (I’ll be repeating the experience often) is - to use a Romantic term - sublime.

What next Die Schöne Müllerin?

3. The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine - Alina Bronsky 4*

Read for 3rd for Q1 group read. More thoughts over there in due course. But it amazes me how much I had forgotten!

4. The Summer of Her Life - Thomas von Steinaeker 4.5*

Graphic novel about the memories of an old lady in a care home. Short but very, very moving.

5. Irmina - Barbara Yelin 4*

Award-winning graphic novel. Will have lots to say about this when I write a review ....

Look forward to the review, I'm behind on everything have an infection that's proving hard to shake but hoping to get going soon.

Gute Besserung, Alwynne.

Vielen dank(?) 😊

6. The Peacock - Isabel Bogdan 5*

German novel, Scottish setting, hilarious. Perfect pick-me-up for lockdown blues. Had a lot to say about this at

https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/202...

And I have 3 copies to giveaway. details on blog.

7. The Blacksmith’s Daughter - Selim Özdogan 4*

V&Q’s second release of 2021, and what a lovely novel, Never met an author who was so fond of his characters before.

Full review at: https://www.eurolitnetwork.com/riveti...

8 Mephisto - Klaus Mann 4*

interesting, as a Scot living in Germany I feel I must now read Isabel Bogdan (probably in German, wonder how those Scottishisms come across). for Alwynne - being picky - vielen Dank ;)

9. The Passenger - Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz 4*

Franz Kafka and John Buchan rolled into one as German Jew, Otto Silbermann travels the German train network seeking to escape Nazi Germany. The author’s fate was even more tragic.

Full review at: https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/202...

10. Higher Ground - Anke Stelling 4*

Housing problems in contemporary Berlin ... an author is served notice on her flat because she has written a book pillorying him and their shared friends ... very topical, serious issues but also very funny.

Full review at: https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/202...

11. The High-Rise Diver - Julia von Lucadou 4*

Dystopian visions ...

https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/202...

12 You’re not dying - Kathrin Schmidt 4*

The 2009 German Book Prize Winner finally makes it into English!

https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/202...

13 The Dead Girls' Class Trip: Selected Stories - Anna Seghers 4*

Review at: https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/202...

14 Sleepless - Romy Hausmann 3*
Review at https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/202...

Thanks for posting these Lizzy, been trying to decide whether to get a copy of the Seghers or not, sounds as if it's worth reading.

It is.

15 Seat 7A - Sebastian Fitzek 3*

Review at: https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/202...

16 Not a Novel: Collected Writings and Reflections - Jenny Erpenbeck 4*

https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/202...

17. MadgermanesMadgermanes - Birgit Weyhe 4*

The first graphic novel from V@Q Books.
Imprint founder and translator Katy Derbyshire explains how to make a graphic novel at: https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/202...

I set myself a mini-challenge to read 11 books for German Literature Month XI. These are they.

18 Motley Stones - Adalbert Stifter 4*
19 The Liquid Land - Raphaeler Edelbauer 3*
20 After Midnight - Irmgard Keun 4*
21 An Inventory of Losses- Judith Schalansky 3*
22 The Basel Killings - Hansjörg Schneider 3.5*
23 The Visit - Friedrich Dürrenmatt 5*
24 Kraft - Jonas Lüscher 3.5*
25 Love and Death in Bali - Vicki Baum 4*
26 After Midnight - Irmgard Keun 4*
27 Confession Of A Murderer - Joseph Roth 4.5*
28 The Buried Candelabrum - Stefan Zweig 3*

Reviewing underway. All will have been published on my blog by the end of November. www.lizzysiddal.wordpress.com