Fiction

By Rainer Maria Rilke Translated by Edward Snow "This book has been central for many young poets, in many languages, for generations. Now, Edward Snow has created a fresh, inviting version in English."―Robert Pinsky "The Notebooks matches the literary heights of Rilke’s finest verse…Edward Snow’s new translation is an opportunity to revisit this elusive masterpiece."―Ratik Asokan, Nation A stunning, revelatory new translation of the only novel by one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, from one of “the most trustworthy and exhilarating of Rilke’s contemporary translators”―Michael Dirda, Washington Post A groundbreaking masterpiece of early European modernism originally published in 1910, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge unspools the vivid reflections of the titular young Danish nobleman and poet. From his Paris garret, Brigge records his encounters with the city and its outcasts, muses on his family history, and lays bare his earliest experiences of fear, tenderness, and desolation. With a poet’s feel for language and a keen instinct for storytelling, Rainer Maria Rilke forges a dazzlingly fractured coming-of-age narrative, kaleidoscopic in its alternation of vivid present encounters and equally alive memories of childhood. Strikingly contemporary, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge reveals a writer metabolizing his own experiences to yield still-essential questions about fiction and reality, empathy and psychosis, and―above all―life, love, and death. In a fascinating introduction, award-winning translator Edward Snow explores the overlaps between Rilke’s experiences and those of his protagonist, and shows with granular attention the novel’s capacity for nuance and sympathy. Snow’s exquisite translation captures as never before the astonishing cadences and musical clarity of the poet’s prose. It reveals The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge as an urgent contemporary achievement, more than one hundred years after it was written. Paperback256 pagesW.W. Norton & Company, 2023Originally published in 19105.5 x 8.3 inchesISBN 9781324066088Literary Fiction

Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge: A Novel (Paperback)

By Hans FalladaTranslated by Michael Hofmann “The greatest book ever written about the German resistance to the Nazis.” — Primo Levi “One of the most extraordinarily ambitious literary resurrections in recent memory.” —The Los Angeles Time “A riveting page turner.” —NPR’s Fresh Air This unflinching masterpiece based on a true story of resistance is more timely than ever, as fascist forces in the 20th century find their home in the rhetoric of the modern right-wing political agenda. Entering its 15th year of English translation, the brilliant Hans Fallada’s account of what The New Yorker called “a visceral, chilling portrait of … everyday German life during the war” follows a working-class couple in Berlin and grieving the loss of their son, launch a campaign to oppose the Nazi regime. Based on a true story from the files of the Gestapo, this sweeping saga of resistance is more relevant than ever in modern times, with the rise of right-wing rhetoric echoed in global politics, and seen in increased book bannings and the reversal of womens’ and LGBTQ+ rights in the US. In the end, it’s more than an edge-of-your-seat thriller, more than a moving romance, even more than literature of the highest order—it’s a deeply stirring story of two people standing up for what’s right — even against impossible odds. Paperback592 pagesMelville House, 2024Originally published in 19475.5 x 8.25 inchesISBN 9781685891442Historical Fiction, Suspense Thriller

Every Man Dies Alone

By Bernadette Watts "Sensitive, tender, and gorgeously illustrated."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review Inspired by a famous story of Franz Kafka, European artist Bernadette Watts reimagines the legend of this literary figure and the letters he writes to comfort a young girl who has lost her doll. Nothing is lost if it remains alive in our hearts! While strolling through the park, Franz Kafka hears the cry of a young girl named Saskia sitting with her mother. When Franz learns that the child has lost her beloved doll, Christiana, Franz reassures her that her doll is traveling the world. Upon their next fortuitous meetings, Franz presents Saskia and her mother with postcards from the lost doll—one from Paris, another from Venice, and finally one from Egypt. When Saskia insists that her doll Christiana come home from her travels, Franz is distraught until he finds a vintage doll in a secondhand shop. Saskia is skeptical—the doll looks old. But when Franz reminds her that we all age from our amazing journeys through life, her heart bursts with joy at their being reunited. Inspired by a famous story, this moving account of generosity highlights the power of imagination and offers a window into the enigmatic life of one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. Hardcover40 pagesAge range: 4-8NorthSouth Books, 2024 8.5 x 0.4 x 11 inchesISBN 9780735845565Children's, Art History

Wish You Were Here: Postcards from Franz Kafka

By Franz Kafka Translated by Susan Bernofsky Introduction by David Cronenberg “This fine version, with David Cronenberg’s inspired introduction and the new translator’s beguiling afterword, is, I suspect, the most disturbing though the most comforting of all so far; others will follow, but don’t hesitate: this is the transforming text for you.”—Richard Howard Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella of unexplained horror and nightmarish transformation became a worldwide classic and remains a century later one of the most widely read works of fiction in the world. It is the story of traveling salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect. This hugely influential work inspired George Orwell, Albert Camus, Jorge Louis Borges, and Ray Bradbury, while continuing to unsettle millions of readers. In her new translation of Kafka’s masterpiece, Susan Bernofsky strives to capture both the humor and the humanity in this macabre tale, underscoring the ways in which Gregor Samsa’s grotesque metamorphosis is just the physical manifestation of his longstanding spiritual impoverishment. Paperback128 pagesW.W. Norton, 2014Originally published in 19155.5 x 8.3 inchesISBN 9780393347098

The Metamorphosis

By Rainer Maria RilkeTranslated by Ulrich Baer In 1903, a student at a military academy sent some of his verses to a well-known Austrian poet, requesting an assessment of their value. The older artist, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926), replied to the novice in this series of letters — an amazing archive of remarkable insights into the ideas behind Rilke's greatest poetry. The ten letters reproduced here were written during an important stage in Rilke's artistic development, and they contain many of the themes that later appeared in his best works. The poet himself afterwards stated that his letters contained part of his creative genius, making this volume essential reading for scholars, poetry lovers, and anyone with an interest in Rilke, German poetry, or the creative impulse.Hardcover74 pagesInsel Verlag GmbH, 2018Originally published in 19294.8 x 7.4 inchesISBN 9783458194507 Classic Literature

Letters to a Young Poet

Original Price: $29.95 UP TO 20% ADDITIONAL SAVINGS FOR MEMBERS By Su Blackwell and Corina Fletcher A magical theatre within a book where children can stage their own productions of Sleeping Beauty with exquisitely designed paper cutouts Based on her strikingly original storybook The Fairy-Tale Princess, Su Blackwell’s sumptuous fairy-tale images, cut out from the pages of classic fables, are now brought to life in three dimensions in this beautiful paper theatre. Everything a child needs to reenact the well-loved story of Sleeping Beauty is provided, including interchangeable scenery and delightful moveable versions of the characters. Inside the ingeniously designed pop-up theater stage between the two covers is a jewel box of moveable pieces: scenery sheets set the stage; characters add the story and colorful props provide the finishing touch. The book contains a pocket to hold the pieces when they’re not in use, and an enclosed booklet contains instructions on how to stage your own performances of Sleeping Beauty for family and friends, including a script. The Sleeping Beauty Theatre will be coveted by children and adults alike who love to make believe. Hardcover28 pagesAge range: 7-10Thames & Hudson, 20159 x 0.75 x 11 inchesISBN 9780500650547 Children's Book, Activity Book

The Sleeping Beauty Theatre

By Sibylle von Olfers Sibylle von Olfers' vintage stories of nature children have been loved by generations. The whimsical tales are accompanied by beautiful art nouveau illustrations of characterful creatures, cheerful plants and flowers and magical little folk. This wonderful new edition of The Story of the Wind Children faithfully reproduces Olfers' classic illustrations in a collectable picture book featuring a hand-crafted design, premium-quality paper, and a luxurious cloth spine. The Sibylle von Olfers library also includes mini gift editions and board books for very young children. Hardcover28 pagesAge range: 3-5 Ingram, 202111.75 x 8.5 inchesISBN 9781782507550Children's Books

The Story of the Wind Children

Edited by Richard Bassett A gorgeously jacketed hardcover anthology of stories set in Prague, by an international array of brilliant writers. The Golden City of Prague has long been an intellectual center of the western world. The writers collected here range from the early nineteenth century to the present and include both Prague natives and visitors from elsewhere. Here are stories, legends, and scenes from the city’s past and present, from the Jewish fable of the golem, a creature conjured from clay, to tales of German and Soviet invasions. The international array of writers ranges from Franz Kafka to Ivan Klíma to Bruce Chatwin, and includes the award-winning British playwright Tom Stoppard and former American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, both of whom have Czech roots. Covering the city’s venerable Jewish heritage, the glamour of the belle-époque period, World War II, Communist rule, the Prague Spring, the Velvet Revolution, and beyond, Prague Stories weaves a remarkable selection of fiction and nonfiction into a literary portrait of a fascinating city. Hardcover416 pagesEveryman's Library, 20204 .5 x 7.25 inchesISBN 9780525659570Classical Fiction

Prague Stories (Everyman's Pocket Library)

Written and Illustrated by Nicolas MahlerTranslated by Alexander Booth "If you are Nicolas Mahler, the writer and illustrator of a short but engaging graphic biography of the man, you’d see [Kafka] as a sort of blob of hair and eyebrows on a stick. The illustrations of Completely Kafka may look rudimentary, but they work. In fact they’re similar in style to the doodles Kafka himself would make in his notebooks."—Spectator "Much the best thing about the book are the charming black and white drawings. The best are the drawings of Kafka himself, drawn in thick brushstroke. Some are like cartoons, a few are more like Kafka’s own drawings, angular, isolated."—Jewish Chronicle A delightfully witty and original graphic biography of Kafka, published to coincide with the centenary of the author’s death The young Franz Kafka has too many fears to name. Mirrors, clothing, his own body, almost everything causes him to fret. How did this ‘anxious and small bundle of bones’ become one of the world’s great writers? With telling details and sharply minimal illustrations, Nicolas Mahler tells a wickedly funny story of the development of Kafka’s genius, offering a tribute that is as playful as it is profound. Paperback128 pages Pushkin Press, 20245.35 x 8.44 inchesISBN 9781805331582Biography, Historic Graphic Novel

Completely Kafka: A Comic Biography

By Marieluise Fleisser Marieluise Fleißers Ingolstädter Stücke, deren Uraufführung in den 20er Jahren zum Skandal führte, zeigen Kleinstädter, deren doppelte Moral jeden Emanzipationsprozeß abschnürt wie ein Korsett aus Gewohnheit, Aberglauben und Engstirnigkeit. Und sie zeigen, um was es der Fleißer geht: um Glück, Liebe, Angstlosigkeit und Klarheit. Paperback160 pagesText in GermanSuhrkamp Verlag, 19974.29 x 6.97 InchesISBN 9783518369036Literature

Ingolstädter Stücke

von Vicki BaumMit einem Vorwort von Elke Heidenreich »Vicki Baum hat sich selbst gern als erstklassige Schriftstellerin zweiter Güte bezeichnet, was natürlich Unsinn war, wie jeder in ihren jetzt neu aufgelegten Erinnerungen nachlesen kann [...], mit viel Gossip und Witz und Palmen dazwischen.« --Die Welt Vom Berlin der 1920er-Jahre bis nach Hollywood: Vicki Baums Lebensgeschichte. Sie sei »nur eine einfache Geschichtenerzählerin« gewesen, schreibt Vicki Baum in ihren Memoiren. Wer nur wenige Seiten dieses Buches liest, begreift sofort, was für ein charmantes Understatement das ist. Baum war eine großartige Erzählerin – und ihr Leben derart angefüllt mit Außergewöhnlichem, dass es geradezu schwindelig macht. »Es war alles ganz anders« beschwört die pulsierenden Metropolen Wien und Berlin in einer explosiven Zeit des Umbruchs herauf. Und es führt vor, wie eine starke hochmoderne Frau ihren Weg geht bis nach Hollywood in einer von Männern dominierten Welt. Taschenbuch592 SeitenText in GermanKiepenheuer & Witsch GmbH, 20184.92 x 7.48 InchesISBN 9783462052091Memoir

Es war alles ganz anders: Erinnerungen

Text by Paul CelanTranslated by Holly Cundif Retranslating Celan's translations of Shakespeare, Dickinson, Rimbaud and more reveals new insights on the circularity of language. Born in Romania into a German-speaking family and recognized as one of the most important postwar poets, Paul Celan (1920–70) is also celebrated for his meticulous German translations of a wide range of works by such luminaries as Dickinson, Mandelstam, Rimbaud, Shakespeare and Ungaretti. Inspired by the close relation between Celan’s work as Überträger, or "transmitter," and his own poetry, Holly Cundiff has retranslated some of these works into English to illuminate the interstices in which we catch a glimpse of Celan’s own perspective. Each selection in The Other Voice is presented in three versions: the poem in its original language, Celan’s translation into German and Cundiff’s translation into English directly from Celan’s translation. This circular process highlights the generative and transformative force of language, which Celan viewed as a means not only of sculpting the world but also of forming new worlds. Hardcover92 pagesMarquand Books, 20258 x 11 inchesISBN 9781646570430 Literature

The Other Voice: Translations from the Übertragungen of Paul Celan

By Bertolt Brecht with an introduction by Marc Silberman Edited by John Willett & Ralph Manheim “Casual wickedness, moral hypocrisy, determined self-interest - such are the familiar residents of Brecht's milieu . . .in this complete collection of his known finished stories . . . Chilling perfection.” ―Times Literary Supplement “Highly anecdotal, humourously accepting of the facts of life, like tales told by a clever seaman in a pub.” ―Guardian “These tales are the least known of Brecht's work, yet they underlie most of his major writings in other fields. Terse, mild-voiced, with piercing detail―a mine for short story addicts.” ―Observer Everyone knows that Bertolt Brecht was one of the great 20th-century innovators in theatre―the literary-theatrical equivalent of a Picasso or Stravinsky―and Germany's greatest poet of the last century, but the playwright was also a dazzling writer of stories. Storytelling permeated his art as a dramatist; fundamentally in his plays he was a storyteller. This volume collects the complete short stories written by Brecht, including the prize-winning 'The Monster', and the fragmentary memoir ghost-written by Brecht, 'Life Story of the boxer Samson-Körner'. Brecht scholar Marc Silberman provides an introduction and editorial notes. Paperback342 pagesBloomsbury Publishing, 20158 x 5 inchesISBN 9781472577511Drama, Poetry Anthology

Collected Short Stories of Bertolt Brecht

Von Vicki Baum »Dieses Buch hat mich berührt. Vicki Baum ist eine erstklassige Schriftstellerin.« Jakob Augstein im Literarischen Quartett »Vor Rehen wird gewarnt.« Diesen Satz, den er einmal in einem Wildpark gelesen hat, kann Rechtsanwalt Watts nur jedem entgegnen, der von der zarten und aufopferungsvollen Ann Ambros spricht. Denn so rehäugig Ann auch durchs Leben geht, so rücksichtslos nimmt sie sich, was sie will. Sie verführt den Mann ihrer Schwester, treibt nicht nur San Francisco, sondern auch Wien zur Verzweiflung, sorgt dafür, dass sie stets das Beste bekommt und dass man ihr noch dankbar ist, wenn man ihr das letzte Hemd schenken darf. Vicki Baum erzählt von einer Frau, der man nicht in die Quere kommen will und deren Bann man sich doch bis zur letzten Seite nicht entziehen kann. Paperback412 pagesText in GermanArche Literatur Verlag AG, 20217.36 x 1.22 x 4.72 inchesISBN 9783716040324 Fiction, Weimar Literature

Vor Rehen wird gewarnt

By Thomas Mann “A classic novella about one man’s infatuation with a young boy’s ideal beauty as cholera sweeps through the canals of Venice, emptying the hotels and quieting the streets.” —Jillian Kravatz, Boston Magazine A "brilliant . . . perfectly nuanced translation" (The Boston Globe) of Thomas Mann's greatest short works Featuring his world-famous masterpiece, "Death in Venice," this collection of Nobel laureate Thomas Mann's stories and novellas reveals his artistic evolution. In a widely acclaimed translation that restores the controversial passages that were censored from the original English version, "Death in Venice" tells about a ruinous quest for love and beauty amid degenerating splendor. Gustav von Aschenbach, a successful but lonely author, travels to the Queen of the Adriatic in search of an elusive spiritual fulfillment that turns into his erotic doom. Spellbound by a beautiful Polish boy, he finds himself fettered to this hypnotic city of sun-drenched sensuality and eerie physical decay as it gradually succumbs to a secret epidemic. Also included in this volume are eleven other stories by Mann: "Tonio Kroger," "Gladius Dei," "The Blood of the Walsungs," "The Will for Happiness," "Little Herr Friedmann," "Tobias Mindernickel," "Little Lizzy," "Tristan," "The Starvelings," "The Wunderkind," and "Harsh Hour." All of the stories collected here display Mann's inimitable use of irony, his subtle characterizations, and superb, complex plots. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. Paperback384 pagesPenguin Classics, 1999Originally Published in 19125 x 7.7 inchesISBN 9780141181738German Literature

Death in Venice and Other Tales

By Walter SernerIntroduction and translation by Erik Butler "These ‘outlandish’ stories relate casual pranks and complicated grifts that are by turns comic and calamitous: some read like games of Cluedo with the players amped up on coke, while others suggest scenes pulled from a film noir, a genre they anticipate by twenty years."―London Review of Books, Hal Foster "At the Blue Monkey offers pieces of a life that don’t fit together, its mystery never solved. There’s no closure to speak of, but if it raises any questions about the nature of fiction and life, its job is done." ―Spectrum Culture, Pat Padua Walter Serner’s first story collection, published in German in 1921, brought to narrative form the philosophy of his earlier Dada manifesto/handbook, Last Loosening: A Handbook for the Con Artist & Those Who Wish to Be One—life is a con job and demands the skills of a swindler. With its depiction of a world of appearances in which nothing can be trusted, At the Blue Monkey helped establish the ex-doctor and renounced Dadaist as a literary “Maupaussant of crime” and offers in this first English translation 33 stories of criminals, con artists and prostitutes engaged in varieties of financial insolvency, embezzlement, sexual hijinks, long and short cons, and dalliances with venereal diseases and drugs. Told in a baroque, sometimes baffling poetry of underworld slang in an urban world of bars and rent-a-rooms, these short tales are presented to the reader like so many three-card Montes in which readers come to realize too late that they may well themselves be the literary mark. Paperback192 pagesWakefield Press, 20205.5 x 8 inchesISBN 9781939663467Literature & Fiction, Short Stories

At The Blue Monkey: 33 Outlandish Stories

By Robert SeethalerTranslated by Katy Derbyshire “Calming, gentle and unsentimental.”—The Guardian “A reminder of the strength and importance of human connections.”—New York Journal of Books Warm, fleeting, and profoundly human.”—Independent Book Review “A humble café in post-World War II Vienna serves as backdrop for all the large and small dramas of everyday life in this subtly scintillating novel... While Seethaler's characters face significant difficulties, the story never feels grim, but rather steadfast and even hopeful. Katy Derbyshire translates Seethaler’s prose from the German with calm delivery, charming descriptions, and understated humor. This lovely novel sweetly and simply emphasizes built family, resilience, and rebirth.”—Julia Kastner, Shelf Awareness From one of Austria’s most beloved and best-selling authors, comes this vibrant tale of love, companionship, and renewal set against the transformations of 1960s Vienna. Summer 1966. Robert Simon is in his early thirties and has a dream: to open a café that welcomes all kinds of customers. Raised in a home for war orphans, Robert has miraculously grown into a warm-hearted, hard-working, and determined man. When the corner café in the Carmelite market square closes, Robert realizes that his chance has come. The place, dark and dilapidated, is in a poor neighborhood of the Austrian capital, but for some time now a new wind has been blowing, and the air is filled with an inexplicable energy and a desire for renewal. In the newspapers with which fishmongers wrap the char and trout from the Danube, one can read about great things to come, a bright future beginning to rise from the quagmire of the past. Enlivened by these promises, Robert refurbishes the café, painting the walls, varnishing the furniture, and polishing the stove plates. Rewarding Robert’s efforts and in search of a congenial place to gather, talk, read, or just sit and be, customers arrive, bringing their stories of passions, friendships, abandonments, and bereavements. Some are in search of company, others long for love, or just a place where they can feel understood. As the city is transformed, Robert's café becomes at once a place of refuge and one from which to observe and rejoice. Combining the enchantment of warm prose with tender humor, Robert Seethaler has written a charming parable of human existence animated by unforgettable characters and a kaleidoscope of human stories. Hardcover208 pagesEuropa Editions, 20255.28 x 8.27 inchesISBN 9798889660644Literary Fiction

The Café with No Name

By Hermann HesseTranslated and afterword by David Horrocks A Penguin Classic Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse’s iconic countercultural novel about the search for authenticity in an inauthentic world, in a new translation At first glance, Harry Haller seems like a respectable, educated man. In reality, he is the Steppenwolf: wild, strange, alienated from society, and repulsed by the modern age. But as he is drawn into a series of dreamlike and sometimes savage encounters—accompanied by, among others, Mozart, Goethe, and the bewitching Hermione—the misanthropic Haller undergoes a spiritual, even psychedelic, journey, and ultimately discovers a higher truth and the possibility of happiness. This blistering portrait of a man who feels himself to be half human and half wolf was the bible of the 1960s counterculture, capturing the mood of a disaffected generation. It continues to resonate as a haunting story of estrangement, redemption, and the search for one’s place in the world. Paperback256 pagesPenguin Classics, 2025Originally published in 19275.06 x 7.75 inchesISBN 9780143137825Classic Fiction

Steppenwolf

By Rainer Maria RilkeTranslated from the German by Vita Sackville-West & Edward Sackville-WestIntroduction by Lesley Chamberlain The first-ever English translation of Rilke’s landmark poetry cycle, by Vita and Edward Sackville-West—reissued for the first time in 90 years In 1931, Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Hogarth Press published a small run of a beautiful edition of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies, in English translation by the writers Vita and Edward Sackville-West. This marked the English debut of Rilke’s masterpiece, which would eventually be rendered in English over 20 times, influencing countless poets, musicians and artists across the English-speaking world. Published for the first time in 90 years, the Sackville-Wests’ translation is both a fascinating historical document and a magnificent blank-verse rendering of Rilke’s poetry cycle. Featuring a new introduction from critic Lesley Chamberlain, this reissue casts one of European literature’s great masterpieces in fresh light. Paperback109 pagesPushkin Press, 2025Originally published in 19235.11 x 0.37 x 7.77 inchesISBN 9781782277804Poetry

Duino Elegies [Paperback]

By J.L.C. & W.C. Grimm Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocket-sized gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure. For the past two centuries these delightful stories, gathered together and written down by brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, have entertained and frightened children and adults alike. This edition is complete and unabridged, and features Arthur Rackham's masterly illustrations, all hand-coloured by Barbara Frith, one of Britain's leading colourists. The lives of Tom Thumb, Cinderella, Rumplestiltskin and the Frog Prince form part of our common heritage: they stimulate the imagination and the heart, and linger at the back of our minds for a lifetime. They are funny, disturbing, wise and compassionate. They speak of joy and terror, happiness and revenge, love and violence. Hardcover392 pagesMacmillan Collector's Library; Reissue edition, 20164.05 x 1.45 x 6.15 inchesISBN 9781509826667Short Stories

Grimm's Fairy Tales (MacMillan Collector's Library)

By Jeremias Gotthelf Translated by H.M. Waidson After one of their own people repeatedly fails to live up to a pact with the Devil, a petty and morally bankrupt village community is plagued by a swarm of deadly black spiders. Using a complex narrative structure, Gotthelf's cautionary novella shrewdly dissects the iniquitous social dynamics of rural life. First published in 1842, The Black Spider displays its author's talent for dark satire and realism, as well as the visionary powers of his imagination. Paperback128 pagesMacMillan Publishing Services, 2025Originally published in 18428 x 5 inchesISBN 9781847499240Literature

The Black Spider

By Hermann HesseTranslated from the German by Kurt Beals "A sharp, erudite new translation of Hesse’s moody classic." ―Susan Bernofsky, Columbia University, and translator of The Metamorphosis "An English-language translation that highlights both the thoughtfulness and, ultimately, the sheer personal power of the original. Beals has managed the considerable feat of making a cult classic of twentieth-century literature feel completely alive for the twenty-first." ―Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly This revolutionary translation is the only way to experience the novel as Hesse envisioned it nearly one hundred years ago. The quest for self-discovery never ends, especially for Harry Haller—better known as the Steppenwolf. After a life spent in self-imposed isolation, Harry meets the mysterious Hermine and becomes captivated by her intoxicating power. Through their nighttime adventures, the Steppenwolf experiences the decadent underbelly of the bourgeois society he always despised. Harry becomes a man divided—lost in a surreal underground world of pleasure and set on a collision course with his innermost desires. There has never been a translation that fully captures the essence of Hermann Hesse’s own spiritual questioning until now. Kurt Beals restores the original meaning of this hallucinatory German tale in a recognizably modern voice. Beals’s expert introduction traces the impact of The Steppenwolf for readers seeking meaning during the upheaval of world conflicts, the onslaught of new technologies, and life’s uncertainties. Paperback256 pagesW.W. Norton & Company, 2025Originally published in 19275.5 x 0.7 x 8.3 inchesISBN 9781324105992German Literature, Hermann Hesse

The Steppenwolf [Paperback]

By Hans FalladaTranslated and Adapted by Alistair Beaton A gripping portrait of life in wartime Berlin and a vividly theatrical study of how paranoia can warp a society gripped by the fear of the night-time knock on the door. Based on true events, Hans Fallada's Alone In Berlin follows a quietly courageous couple, Otto and Anna Quangel who, in dealing with their own heartbreak, stand up to the brutal reality of the Nazi regime. With the smallest of acts, they defy Hitler's rule with extraordinary bravery, facing the gravest of consequences. Translated and Adapted by Alistair Beaton (Feelgood, The Trial Of Tony Blair), this timely story of the moral power of personal resistance sees the Gestapo launch a massive hunt for the perpetrators and Otto and Anna finding themselves players in a deadly game of cat and mouse. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Royal and Derngate Theatre in February 2020. Paperback120 pagesMethuen Drama, 20208 x 5 inchesISBN 9781350172401Hans Fallada, Plays

Alone in Berlin

By Kirsten Menger-Anderson “From Vienna to San Francisco, I was swept away by this fascinating search for family and for answers.”—Janet Skeslien Charles, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Library and Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade One of The Washington Post’s “10 Noteworthy Books for March” A thrilling historical mystery about a young woman searching for her father, a young man trying to solve an impossible problem, and the quest for the power to transcend time. In Half Moon Bay, California, 2016, a young woman waits for her father’s sailboat to arrive at port. They have agreed to meet on this day and time. Yet he never shows. He has told her this event might come. And if it did, she was ready. Go to the library in Berkeley, find a certain book, follow the instructions. But what if the instructions lead to more questions than answers? In 1933, a young man arrives in Vienna to begin a new post as a professor of mathematics at the university. There he finds himself part of the Engelhardt Circle, a group of intellectuals that have recently been targeted by a growing, anti-academic mob. The circle includes the preeminent minds of their time and a cast of characters desperate to get invited into their midst, many of whom will stop at nothing to get there. As fascism rises, and polarization increases, moderate voices are drowned out. There are whispers of a machine, a music box, which can transport someone through time. But no one can confirm if it’s a rumor or true. And the only people who know firsthand are not talking. Between the young woman, who lives off the grid and spends her free time editing Wikipedia entries and picking fights with people online, and the circle of intellectuals debating space and time in Vienna on the eve of World War II, lie years of history that might easily be erased—unless old secrets are unraveled. Kirsten Menger-Anderson’s beautiful meditation on time, love, and obsession shows us how we never truly know what happened in the past, and often how the past eerily mirrors the future. Hardcover256 pagesCrown, 20256.41 x 0.92 x 9.54 inchesISBN 9780593798300 Historical Fiction

The Expert of Subtle Revisions

By Nell Zink “To stay out late in Zink’s world, loitering, is a pleasure. . . . Her voice is cool and fastidious, but she has a screwball quality—a comic sensibility rooted in pain. She grinds her own sophisticated colors as a writer; her ironies are finely tuned; she is uniquely alert to the absurdities of human conduct.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times Book Review “This sly, sprightly novel provides a distraction from the news while the news is all over it. . . . One of the pleasures of Sister Europe is that it’s thoroughly up-to-date but still shaped in the timeless way of Wodehousian comedy of errors.”—Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal “Picaresque, amusing, and brisk, this is a worldly hangout novel of 21st-century manners.”—Vogue, “The Best Books of 2025—A Preview” An irresistible and poignant novel about the upper echelons of Berlin society, a grand literary celebration, and the after-party that upends the night and carries a group of guests deeper into the city Naema, an elderly princess dedicated to her pet causes, is in a bind: struck by a malady that maroons her in Montreux, she’s unable to host an exclusive gala dinner in Berlin to honor the author Masud al-Huzeil for his lifetime achievement in Arabic literature. Not only is she unable to attend, RSVPs have been slow to materialize, and she’s reduced to begging the ancient award winner to find some attendees at the last minute. Masud invites his old friend Demian, a native Berliner, who in turn invites his two best friends: the troubled innocent Livia and an American publisher, Toto, who will do anything for a free meal. But Toto doesn’t come alone. In tow are his younger Internet date—she’s stood him up often enough to be nicknamed “the Flake”—and Demian’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Nicole. Not to mention the cop who’s been trailing Nicole since she left the red-light district. Presiding over the affair is Naema’s infinitely rich, endlessly disaffected grandson, Prince Radi, whose pass at Nicole culminates in an epic midnight food run that changes all their lives. With sophistication and tenderness, Nell Zink weaves a vividly colored tapestry of a milieu at odds with itself, taking her trademark ambiguity, daring, and humor to new heights. Hardcover208 pagesKnopf, 20256.25 x 9.25 InchesISBN 9780593534915Literature, Fiction

Sister Europe: A Novel

By Yevgenia Nayberg “Illustrated in dynamic, mostly primary colors that mirror Florine’s customary palettes. . . A passionate ode to a pioneering female artist whose influence endures and inspires.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review A young girl forms a special connection to the modernist painter Florine Stettheimer, and imagines herself joining in on Florine’s exciting life. When a young girl visits the museum, she finds an unexpected friend in a self-portrait of Florine Stettheimer. They’re both artists; they both have Jewish families; they even look alike! Florine’s life was wild and glamorous. She painted people in flight and buildings that grew from the ground like crooked trees, bright colors and shapes and animals. She threw parties frequented by other famous visionaries like Marcel Duchamp and Carl Van Vechten. Soon, our narrator is dreaming up her own fantastical parties for Florine, with table spreads of colorful treats, and painting and dancing and poetry. With Florine in her life, even a rainy day can’t make the world seem humdrum anymore. A Party for Florine is an unapologetically whimsical fan letter to an artist whose influence is clear in Sydney Taylor Honoree Yevgenia Nayberg’s captivating illustrations. Dreamers, creators, and budding modernists will be drawn into the young protagonist’s party just as strongly as she is drawn into Stettheimer’s paintings. Hardcover40 pagesAge range: 4-8 yearsNeal Porter Books, 20248.62 x 0.41 x 11.24 inchesISBN 9780823454105Children's Book

A Party for Florine: Florine Stettheimer and Me

By Theodor Fontane and Hugh RorrisonAfterword by Helen Chambers An exceptional translation of Fontane’s masterpiece: one of the great 19th-century novels of adultery to stand beside Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary “A stunningly moving, beautiful, witty and urbane novel: I was blown away by it”— Kate Saunders, author of The Secrets of Wishtide In this witty masterpiece of poetic realism, expertly translated by Hugh Rorrison, Effi Briest shows Theodor Fontane at the height of his talents, as he questions the hypocrisies and destructive values of middle-class society. Effi Briest is only 17 when she is married off to Baron von Innstetten, travelling to live with him in a provincial town on the remote Baltic coast of Prussia. He is 20 years her senior, an ambitious bureaucrat uninterested in his young wife, and lively Effi becomes increasingly isolated, bored and anxious in her stifling surroundings. A half-hearted affair with Major Crampas – a manipulative married man with a reputation for womanising – temporarily distracts Effi from her loneliness. But years later, this brief liaison will return to Effi with devastating consequences. Written with great empathy for his characters, Fontane portrays a woman torn between her own desires and her roles as wife and mother, between her heart and the obligations of social circumstance. Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: outstanding classic storytelling from around the world, in a stylishly original series design. From newly rediscovered gems to fresh translations of the world’s greatest authors, this series includes such authors as Stefan Zweig, Hermann Hesse, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and Gaito Gazdanov. Paperback224 pagesPushkin Press Classics, 2024Originally published in 18955.1 x 7.1 inchesISBN 9781805331599Historical Fiction

Effi Briest

By Anja von Kampen Illustrated Kilian Schütz and Mat Heldwein Knietzsche thinks that some friends seem to fall from the sky like shooting stars, and some friendships seem to grow at a snail’s pace. However the friendship comes about – a true friend is always there for you and will never betray you. A short story about the family you choose for yourself. Paperback24 pagesvision X GmbH, 2018Age 54.7 x 4.7 inches ISBN 9783981905571

Knietzsche and Friendship

By Franz KafkaTranslated by Idris Parry A brilliant translation of one of the greatest works of Franz Kafka, author of Metamorphosis, telling the haunting story of a man’s desperate search for answers amid his prosecution for an unknown crime. A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis—an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life—including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door—becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral. Paperback208 pagesPenguin Random House, 2024Originally published in 19255.1 x 7.75 inchesISBN 9780241678893Literature

The Trial (Penguin Classics)

By Franz KafkaIntroduction by Idris ParryTranslated by J. A. Underwood An acclaimed translation of the final work by Franz Kafka—author of Metamorphosis and some of the twentieth century’s greatest literature—following the story of a man’s bizarre, unending struggle to carry out his mysterious new job The Castle is the story of K., the unwanted land surveyor who is never to be admitted to the Castle nor accepted in the village, and yet cannot go home. As he encounters dualities of certainty and doubt, hope and fear, and reason and nonsense, K.’s struggles in the absurd, labyrinthine world where he finds himself seem to reveal an inexplicable truth about the nature of existence. Kafka began The Castle in 1922 and it was never finished, yet this, the last of his three great novels, draws fascinating conclusions that make it feel strangely complete. Paperback320 pagesPenguin Classics, 2024Originally published in 19265.1 x 7.25 inchesISBN 9780241678916Literature, Fiction

The Castle (Penguin Classics)

By Elias CanettiTranslated by Peter Filkins The Book Against Death is the work of a lifetime: a collection of Elias Canetti’s powerful, disarming, and often bleakly comic observations, diatribes, and musings on and against death. Evoking despair, melancholy, and fury, Canetti examines the inevitable demise of all beings—from the ant, the fish, and the worm to an executioner, a court painter, and a Greek god—while fiercely protesting the mass deaths incurred during war and the willingness of despots to wield death as power. Interspersed with material from philosophers and writers such as Goethe, Walter Benjamin, and Robert Walser, The Book Against Death is ultimately a moving affirmation of the value of life itself. Paperback432 pagesNorton, 20245 x 8 inchesISBN 9780811237994 Literary Collection

The Book Against Death

By E.T.A. HoffmannTranslated by Joachim Neugroschel, R.J. Hollingdale, Sally Hayward The gift of a handsomely decorated, enigmatic nutcracker sets the stage for a Christmas like no other: there will be legends of ancient curses, battles with the dreaded Mouse King, and a visit to the wonderful Kingdom of Dolls. The inspiration for the classic ballet, E. T. A. Hoffmann's irresistible tale of magic and mystery continues to be the perfect encapsulation of a child's wonder at Christmas. Hardcover208 PagesPenguin Clothbound Classics, 20228.66 x 5.91 x 0.98 inchesISBN 9780241597064 Penguin Classics Literature

The Nutcracker

By Rainer Maria Rilke Over the course of six years, Maria Rilke wrote a series of letters to a young officer cadet, advising him on writing, love, suffering and the nature of advice itself; these profound and lyrical letters have since become hugely influential for writers and artists of all kinds. This volume also contains the 'Letter from a Young Worker', a striking polemic against Christianity written too in letter form. Hardcover128 pagesPenguin Clothbound Classics, 20234.49 x 0.55 x 6.46 inchesISBN 9780241620038 German Poetry

By Arthur Schnitzler Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil. Like his Austrian contemporary Sigmund Freud, the doctor and writer Arthur Schnitzlerwas a bold pioneer in exploring the dark tangled roots of human consciousness. His novella Dream Story tells the tale of a young married man who, after a discussion with his wife about their fantasies, experiences an eerie reverie through Vienna's underbelly. Hardcover160 pagesPenguin Clothbound Classics, 20234.72 x 0.79 x 6.57 inchesISBN 9780241620229Vienna, Literary Fiction

Dream Story

By Stefan ZweigTranslated by Anthea Bell Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colorful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil. A group of passengers on a cruise ship challenge the world chess champion to a match. At first, they crumble, until they are helped by whispered advice from a stranger in the crowd - a man who will risk everything to win. Stefan Zweig's acclaimed novella Chess is a disturbing, intensely dramatic depiction of obsession and the price of the past. Hardcover128 pagesPenguin Classics, 2023Originally published in 19424.63 x 0.54 x 6.61 inchesISBN 9780241630822Austrian Literature

Chess

By Hannah ArendtTranslated and edited by Samantha Rose Hill with Genese Grill "A new volume of [Arendt’s] poetry reveals that the author of sobering works like The Origins of Totalitarianism and The Human Condition was writing ardent and intimate verse in her off-hours."- Srikanth Reddy, The Paris Review A landmark literary event, What Remains collects Arendt’s complete poetic oeuvre—never before published in English. Internationally renowned as one of the twentieth century’s foremost public intellectuals, Hannah Arendt was also intensely private. Though she often acknowledged that the language of poetry—especially that of Dickinson, Goethe, and Lowell—informed her work, only a few people knew that Arendt herself wrote poems. In fact, between 1923 and 1961, Arendt wrote seventy-four poems, many of them signposts in an otherwise unwritten autobiography. For nearly forty years after her death, these poems remained hidden among the archives of the Library of Congress, until 2011, when they were rediscovered by scholar and translator Samantha Rose Hill. Now, for the first time in English, Hill and Genese Grill present Arendt’s poems in chronological order, taking us from the zenith of the Weimar Republic to the Cold War, and from Marburg, Germany, to New York’s Upper West Side. Throughout, Arendt uses poetry to mark moments of joy, love, loss, and reflection. In “W. B.,” written in 1942, she remembers Walter Benjamin, who died near the French-Spanish border while attempting to flee the Nazis: “Gentle whispering melodies / Sound from the darkness. / We listen so we can let go.” So, too, she reflects on mutability and transience in 1946: “I know that the houses have fallen. / We entered the world in them, wonderfully sure, that they / were more durable than ourselves.” She tries to understand her place in the world: “Ironically foolish, / I’ve forgotten nothing, / I know the emptiness, / I know the burden, / I dance, I dance / In ironic splendor.” A gift to all readers of Arendt, this stunning, dual-language edition provides an unparalleled view into the inner sanctum of one of our most original thinkers. Hardcover208 pagesLiveright, 20245.8 x 0.8 x 8.6 inchesISBN 9781324090526 Poetry, Hannah Arendt

What Remains: The Collected Poems of Hannah Arendt

By Erich Maria Remarque Introduction by Sebastian Faulks Widely acclaimed as the greatest war novel of all time, this classic tale of a young German soldier’s harrowing experiences in the trenches of World War I is the basis for an Academy Award-winning film. With an introduction by bestselling author Sebastian Faulks. When twenty-year-old Paul Bäumer and his classmates enlist in the German army during World War I, they are full of youthful enthusiasm. But the world of duty, culture, and progress they had been taught to believe in shatters under the first brutal bombardment in the trenches. Through the ensuing years of horror, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principle of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against one another. Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel not only portrays in vivid detail the combatants’ physical and mental trauma, but dramatizes as well the tragic detachment from civilian life felt by many upon returning home. Remarque’s stated intention–“to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war”–remains as powerful and relevant as ever, a century after that conflict’s end. Paperback224 pagesRandom House, Inc.Originally published in 19295.17 x 0.66 x 8 inchesISBN 9780593688670 Literature, Historical Fiction

All Quiet on the Western Front

By Adelbert von ChamissoTranslated by Leopold von Loewenstein-Wertheim Unsuccessful in his endeavors, the young and naive Peter Schlemihl seals a pact with the Devil in which he exchanges his shadow for the purse of Fortunatus, thereby gaining everlasting riches. But when he is ridiculed, persecuted and hated for being different from other men, he realizes that poverty is easier to bear than the loss of his peace of mind. Originally written as a cautionary tale for the children of Chamisso's patron, Peter Schlemihl was hailed by contemporaries as a masterpiece with a wide adult appeal, and continues to capture imaginations today. Paperback128 pagesAlma Classics, 2024Originally published in 18145.1 x 0.4 x 7.75 inchesISBN 9781847499233Children’s Book, Adelbert von Chamisso

Peter Schlemihl

By Ulrich Alexander BoschwitzTranslated from the German by Philip BoehmPreface by André Aciman “A jewel of a rediscovery . . . . A riveting, noirish, intensely filmic portrait of an ambivalent fugitive, cornered but not captured, safest when in motion, at greatest risk when forced to rest.” —The Wall Street Journal "Stunning . . . clairvoyant . . . Boschwitz’s novel pulsates with fine, understated descriptions . . . One comes away marveling not only at Boschwitz’s craftsmanship but at what can only be called his human spirit . . . The Passenger resembles a message in a bottle: cautionary, despairing, a literary warning." —Ruth Margalit, The New York Review of Books Berlin, November 1938. Jewish shops have been ransacked and looted, synagogues destroyed. As storm troopers pound on his door, Otto Silbermann, a respected businessman, is forced to sneak out the back of his own home. Turned away from establishments he had long patronized, and fearful of being exposed as a Jew despite his Aryan looks, he boards a train. And then another. And another . . . until his flight becomes a frantic odyssey across Germany, as he searches first for information, then for help, and finally for escape. Taut, immediate, infused with acerbic Kafkaesque humor, The Passenger is an indelible portrait of a man and a society careening out of control. Twenty-three-year-old Ulrich Boschwitz wrote The Passenger at breakneck speed in 1938, fresh in the wake of the Kristallnacht pogroms, and his prose flies at the same pace. Long considered lost, the original manuscript was only recently discovered in the German archives and has now been published throughout the world and universally hailed as a masterpiece. Paperback288 pagesMetropolitan Books, 2022Originally published in 19385.35 x 0.72 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9781250811288Fiction, Rediscovered Literature

The Passenger

By Paul CelanEdited by Bertrand BadiouTranslated by Jason Kavett Insightful and provocative letters by a great twentieth-century poet to his artist wife about life and, revealingly, his own writing. An intimate look at this canonical poet’s process, mental health, and quotidian moments during the early 1950s. One of the most significant European poets of the twentieth century, Paul Celan came from an Eastern European Jewish family and lost his parents to the death camps of World War II. Transplanted to Paris, he produced a body of work that was an ongoing confrontation with that history of loss and with the German language. His poems, anguished and unsleeping, have by now been translated into many languages, becoming a touchstone for poets, writers, and philosophers. Letters to Gisèle presents the letters Celan wrote to his wife, the French visual artist Gisèle Celan-Lestrange, over the course of close to twenty years, along with letters to the couple’s son, Eric, and letters from Gisèle to Paul. They provide an intimate view of his literary career and troubled life, which was marked by repeated stays in psychiatric clinics. They also provide an unparalleled glimpse into Celan’s poetic workshop, including his own word-for-word renderings from German into French of more than a dozen of his poems. These he addressed to Gisèle as an ongoing, informal German lesson. They figure too as messages from the heart. Presented here trilingually, these overlapping versions of Celan’s poems open up new dimensions of his famously hermetic poetry, as dazzling as it is dark. This edition includes some poems in the original German and Celan’s own translations of them. Paperback544 pagesNYRB Poets, 20245.71 x 1.31 x 8.18 inchesISBN 9781681378305Letters, Essays

Letters to Gisèle

By Susan Hood and Greg Dawson A Sydney Taylor Book Award 2023 Middle Grade Notable A Jewish Book Council Award Middle Grade Finalist The moving true story of how young Ukrainian Jewish piano prodigies Zhanna (alias “Anna”) and her sister Frina outplayed their pursuers while hiding in plain sight during the Holocaust. A middle grade nonfiction novel-in-verse by award-winning author Susan Hood with Greg Dawson (Zhanna’s son). She wouldn’t be Zhanna. She’d use an alias. A for Anna. A for alive. When the Germans invade Ukraine, Zhanna, a young Jewish girl, must leave behind her friends, her freedom, and her promising musical future at the world’s top conservatory. With no time to say goodbye, Zhanna, her sister Frina, and their entire family are removed from their home by the Nazis and forced on a long, cold, death march. When a guard turns a blind eye, Zhanna flees with nothing more than her musical talent, her beloved sheet music, and her father’s final plea: “I don’t care what you do. Just live.” This incredible true story in-verse about sisterhood, survival, and music. Includes extensive back matter with original letters and photographs, additional information, and materials for further reading. Paperback368 pagesAge range: 10-13 yearsHarper Collins, 20235.25 x 1 x 7.5 inchesISBN 9780063083905Middle Grade Readers, Children’s Books

Alias Anna: A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis

By Mariah MarsdenIllustrated by Ofride Discover the heartwarming magic of Johanna Spyri’s beloved tale in this gorgeous graphic novel adaptation. From the author of the critically acclaimed Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel comes another thoughtfully retold children’s classic. When young Heidi is sent to live with her grandfather in a small shepherd’s hut in the Swiss Alps, everyone expects him to turn her away. He has a bad reputation: mean, growly, and harsh as the cold mountain winds. But Heidi is quick to take on any challenge, whether it’s keeping an eye on the rebellious goats, learning to read, or melting Grandfather’s icy heart. Heidi’s adventures take her up and down her beloved mountain, from picnics in the high alpine meadows all the way to the distant streets of Frankfurt and a city life she could never have imagined. But when homesickness strikes, Heidi must weigh old friendships with new ones and find her place in an expanding world. Given new life as a graphic novel in artist Ofride’s warm, folk art–inspired style, Heidi celebrates the joy of storytelling, the wonders of nature, and the healing power of kindness. Paperback160 pagesAge range: 8-12Andrews McMeel Publishing, 20256 x 0.5 x 9 inchesISBN 9781524886400Swiss Children’s Book, Johanna Spyri

Heidi: A Graphic Novel

By Irmgard KeunTranslated by Geoff Wilkes Gilgi knows where she's going in life: she's ambitious, determined and fearless. She's not even derailed when her parents drop a massive bombshell on her twenty-first birthday. But then she meets the charming but aimless Martin, and for the first time, Gilgi finds herself blown bewilderingly and dangerously off-course. Set in Cologne against the backdrop of rising Nazism, Irmgard Keun's astonishing debut electrified Weimar Germany. With its frank exploration of sex, abortion, work and love, it feels as fresh today as when it first appeared. Paperback192 pagesPenguin Classics, 2019Originally published in 19317.76 x 0.43 x 5.04 inchesISBN 9780241391808Weimar Literature, Neue Sachlichkeit

Gilgi, One of Us

By Irmgard KeunTranslated by Kathie von Ankum Doris is going to be a big star. Wearing a stolen fur coat and recently fired from her office job, she takes an all-night train to Berlin to make it in the movies. But what she encounters in the city is not fame and fortune, but gnawing hunger, seedy bars, and exploitative men—and as Doris sinks ever lower, she resorts to desperate measures to survive. Very funny and intensely moving, this is a dazzling portrait of roaring Berlin in the 1920s, and a poignant exploration of the doomed pursuit of fame and glamour. Paperback208 pagesPenguin Classics, 2019Originally published in 19325.08 x 0.35 x 7.76 inchesISBN 9780241382967Weimar Literature

The Artificial Silk Girl

By Anja von Kampen Illustrated Kilian Schütz and Mat Heldwein A short story about the bubbliest felling of them all. Paperback24 pagesvision X GmbH, 2018Age 54.7 x 4.7 inches ISBN 9783981905595

Knietzsche and Happiness

By Cathleen Schine An NPR Best Book of the Year "A moving and entertaining novel about how we revisit memories to make meaning for ourselves and others. . . . Ms. Schine has a wonderful ability to weave research and substantive ideas into her novels without weighing them down. Her buoyant dialogue has the zip of great comedy routines." ―Wall Street Journal "Künstlers in Paradise is a tender family story, but it is also a profound meditation on the nature and power of storytelling, inheritance, and legacy, the malleability and perdurability of memory." ―Boston Globe There was a time when the family Künstler lived in the fairy-tale city of Vienna. Circumstances transformed the fairy tale into a nightmare, and in 1939 the Künstlers found their way out of Vienna and into a new fairy tale: Los Angeles, California, United States of America. For years Mamie Künstler, ninety-three years old, as clever and glamorous as ever, has lived happily in her bungalow in Venice, California, with her inscrutable housekeeper and her gigantic St. Bernard. Their tranquility is upended when Mamie’s grandson Julian arrives from New York City. Like many a twentysomething, he has come to seek his fortune in Hollywood. But it is 2020, the global pandemic sweeps in, and Julian’s short visit suddenly has no end in sight. Mamie was only eleven when the Künstlers escaped Vienna in 1939. They made their way, stunned and overwhelmed, to sunny, surreal Los Angeles, where they joined a colony of distinguished Jewish musicians, writers, and intellectuals also escaping Hitler. Now, faced with months of lockdown and a willing listener, Mamie begins to tell Julian the buried stories of her years in Los Angeles: her escapades with eminent émigrés like Arnold Schoenberg, Christopher Isherwood, Thomas Mann. Oh, and Greta Garbo. While the pandemic cuts Julian off from the life he knows, Mamie’s tales open up a world of lives that came before him. They reveal to him just how much the past holds of the future. Paperback272 pagesHolt Paperbacks, 20247.15 x 0.7 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9781250892492Historical Fiction

Künstlers in Paradise [Paperback]

By Adam Ehrlich Sachs "Adam Ehrlich Sachs makes books that make their own traditions. This is the highest praise I know, for serious." —Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Netanyahus "Sachs lends a touch of the fantastical to Viennese life at the end of WWI in this inventive novel . . . [He] keenly captures the pulse of a city on the cusp of immense change. This spirited volume lingers long after the final page." —Publishers Weekly A lean, seductive, and dazzlingly inventive novel that shows us the dark side of early twentieth-century Vienna. Vienna, 1919. A once-mighty empire has finally come crashing down—and a mysterious young woman, unable to speak, has turned up on the streets. A doctor appeals to the public for information about her past and receives a single response, from a sanatorium patient who claims to be her father. The man reveals only her name: Gretel. But he encloses a bedtime story he asks the doctor to read aloud to her, about an Architect whose radically modern creation has caused a great scandal. The next day a second story arrives, about a Ballet Master who develops a new position of the feet. Twenty-four more stories follow in alphabetical order, about an Immunologist and a Jeweler, a Revolutionary and a Satirist, a Waif and an X-ray Technician and a Zionist. Crossing paths and purposes, their stories interweave until a single picture emerges, that of a decadent, death-obsessed, oversexed empire buzzing with the ideas of Freud and Karl Kraus. There are artists who ape the innocence of children, and scientists who insist that children are anything but innocent . . . And then there’s Gretel’s own mother, who will do whatever it takes to sing onstage at the City Theater. Is it any wonder that this world—soon to vanish anyway in a war to end all wars—was one from which Gretel’s father wished to shelter her? Paperback224 pagesFSG Originals, 20245.35 x 0.56 x 8.15 inchesISBN 9780374614249Vienna, Contemporary Fiction

Gretel and the Great War

By Alexander Lernet-Holenia Translated by Ignat Avsey “The cast of this brilliant thriller … are pure Raymond Chandler … but the Viennese setting gives it an extra, stylish twist. It’s excellently written and fearsomely gripping.”—Kate Saunders, The Times “A terrific fast-moving book. . . a truly clever, rather wonderful book that both plays with and defies genre”—Irish Times “A fascinating snapshot of Vienna between the wars, pacey and entertaining.”—Laura Wilson, Guardian A taxi-driver in 1930s Vienna impersonates a murder victim, and is caught into a dangerous spiral Twice adapted for film, I Was Jack Mortimer is a tale of misappropriated identity as darkly captivating and twisting as the books of Patricia Highsmith. “One doesn’t step into anyone’s life, not even a dead man’s, without having to live it to the end.” A man climbs into Ferdinand Sponer’s cab, gives the name of a hotel, and before he reaches it has been murdered: shot through the throat. And though Sponer has so far committed no crime, he is drawn into the late Jack Mortimer’s life, and might not be able to escape its tangles and intrigues before it is too late… Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: outstanding classic storytelling from around the world, in a stylishly original series design. From newly rediscovered gems to fresh translations of the world’s greatest authors, this series includes such authors as Stefan Zweig, Hermann Hesse, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and Gaito Gazdanov. Paperback160 pagesPushkin Press Classics, 20245 x 7 inchesISBN 9781805330370Thriller, Crime, Literary Fiction

I Was Jack Mortimer

By Jono Ganz Based on the real-life cat who lived at the Tate Modern museum, Jono Ganz’s Mildred the Gallery Cat is a bold and vibrant debut picture book featuring clever nods to some of the world’s greatest masterpieces that is sure to delight art lovers both big and small. Mildred is a sleepy gallery cat by day but an inquisitive artist by night. Join Mildred as she explores the many art styles in the gallery and finds what being an artist means to her. Hardcover32 pagesAge range: 3-5 yearsTate Publishing, 202310.5 x 10.5 x 1 inchesISBN 9781849767873 Picture Book

Mildred the Gallery Cat

By Franz KafkaSelected and with an Introduction by Joshua CohenA new selection of Franz Kafka’s shorter fiction and nonfiction work, selected and with a preface by Book of Numbers author Joshua Cohen.“Being asked to write about Kafka is like being asked to describe the Great Wall of China by someone who’s standing just next to it. The only honest thing to do is point.” —Joshua Cohen, from his foreword to He: Shorter Writings of Franz KafkaThis is a Kafka emergency kit, a congregation of the brief, the minor works that are actually major. Joshua Cohen has produced a frame that refuses distinctions between what is a story, a letter, a workplace memo, and a diary entry, also including popular favorites like The Bucket Rider, The Penal Colony, and The Burrow. Here we see Kafka’s preoccupations in writing about animals, messiah variations, food, and exercise, each in his signature style.Cohen’s selection emphasizes the stately structure of utterly coherent logic within an utterly incoherent and illogical world, showing how Kafka harnessed the humblest grammar to metamorphic power, until the predominant effect ceases to be the presence of an unreliable narrator but the absence of the universe’s only reliable narrator—God. Paperback320 pagesPicador Paper, 20224.93 x 0.75 x 7.5 inchesISBN 9780374538941 Franz Kafka, Short Stories

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