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| Ahne: 160 pages (2001) |
Ahne is
a young writer who once declaimed his works in East Berlin bars and nightclubs.
His stories are straightforward tales of everyday life, “cool,” without fancy language but full of irony and precisely observed detail. |
Geelong Regional City Library, VIC NT Library & Information Service
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| Amann,
Jürgen: 96 pages (2001) |
Two friends confront each other in a Swiss hospital. One is dying. The other is the last person to bid him farewell. They have grown up together and been very close friends all their lives despite differences of domicile and lifestyle. Now they are contemplating their ruined lives. Amann’s spare, stark writing places us face to face with the unspeakable. | |
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| Benedickt, Maria: 183 pages (2001) |
A crime story with a difference in which an internationally hunted lady thief commits a frightful blunder during the last caper of her career. Fluent, ironical language describes how good and evil become reversed. | |
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| Brussig,
Thomas: 110 pages (2001) |
Meditations of an old and disappointed footy coach who trained a provincial team from boyhood to manhood. They very nearly qualified for the champions’ league. This sometimes amusing story denounces situations and lies associated with the former GDR, taking side-swipes also at the former FRG. | |
| Bruyn,
Günter de: 68 pages (2001) |
Seven well written and thought-provoking stories which, despite the book’s title, turn out to be very contemporary… | |
| Dörrie,
Doris: 112 pages (2001) |
The wonderful story of three couples and their struggle for happiness. It’s also about the difficulties experienced by men and women in understanding each other, and in finding the appropriate balance between distance and proximity. | |
| Düffel,
John von: 240 pages (2001) |
Socio-sexual comedy-satire focusing on Philipp, a consulting manager and super- macho ladykiller | |
| Erpenbeck, Jenny: 116 pages (2001) |
Eleven stories about human relationships that reveal the characters’ strengths and weaknesses. Erpenbeck’s style is admirable, analytical yet readable; excellent, too, is her refusal to offer clichés or facile happy endings. | |
| Franck,
Julia: 140 pages (2000) |
A collection of short stories by an author (born 1970) regarded as a ‘shooting star’ among young German writers. Cool and analytical, they’re about love, lust and erotic obsession. | |
| Frischmuth, Barbara: 195 pages (2001) |
A 13th century letter discovered in a flea market attracts the interest of a professor, a Turkish scholar and a priest, landing the discoverer in deep trouble. Highly recommended. | |
| Fuld,
Werner (Editor): 214 pages (2001) |
The very problematic love affair of two famous artists, Marlene Dietrich and Erich Maria Remarque, which lasted more than 25 years, is a very revealing collection of letters. |
Geelong Regional City Library, VIC |
| Gricksch, Gernot: 320 pages (2001) |
Griksch follows the fortunes of former members of a Hamburg children’s gang over four decades, resulting in a pleasing narrative that’s well worth reading. | |
| Hess,
Katharina: 200 pages (2001) |
This autobiography of an ordinary Swiss woman makes absorbing if unsensational reading. | |
| Hetmann,
Frederik (Editor) 125 pages (2001) |
Volume two of this “history of literature in stories” offers biographical profiles of contemporary German authors that, like the information found in literary travel guides, succeeds in piquing the reader’s curiosity. | |
| Jelinek,
Elfriede: 283 pages (2001) |
A piano teacher in her 30s falls VICtim to her strict upbringing aimed at efficiency and success, experiencing the loss of her sexual identity in a society dominated by men.The film with Isabelle Huppert is based on this novel. | |
| Klüssendorf, Angelika: 191 pages (2001) |
A novel about life in East Germany after reunification: everything is different but not necessarily better. An interesting example of modern German literature. | |
| Knauss,
Sibylle: 367 pages (2000) |
Fifty years on, Marlene, younger cousin of Eva Braun, recalls her life in Obersalzberg far from political reality. An interesting mixture of history and historical speculation. | |
| Krechel,
Ursula: 159 pages (2001) |
Every time the first-person narrator opens her mouth, she hears a voice that says ‘Shut up’. The voice forces her to keep quiet, even when she witnesses violence and injustice. Oppressively up-to-date. | |
| Leky,
Mariana: 108 pages (2001) |
Melancholy stories about life, love and the whole damned thing. Poetic, worth reading. | |
| Lustig,
Jan: 160 pages (2001) |
The screenwriter and journalist Jan Lustig describes his flight from Nazi Germany in 1940 and his daily life as an emigrant. |
Geelong Regional City Library, VIC |
| Menasse,
Robert: 492 pages (2001) |
Spinoza’s teacher and a Viennese historian share the same experiences although the former lived in the 17th and the latter in the 20th century : expulsion, persecution and escape. Menasse’s writing is precise and exciting. | |
| Merkel,
Rainer: 282 pages (2001) |
Christian Schlier somehow contrives to land a job in a top advertising agency where he experiences the pressure and creeping anxieties undergone by high flyers in today’s corporate jungle, however laid-back and uncomplicatedly creative they like to see themselves. Ironic and well described insight into the advertising world. | |
| Miermeister, Jürgen: 101 pages (2001) |
In diary-like reflections, author and journalist Jürgen Miermeister describes his love-hate affair with the German metropolis. Employing quotations from famous poets and philosophers and reflections on politics and history, he attempts to capture the spirit of the city. | |
| Montasser, Thomas: 383 pages (2001) |
In 1252 a French crusader sets off for the Holy Land in order to meet his friend, a Persian scholar. Together they recall their adventurous past. Skilfully narrated. | |
| Ortheil,
Hanns-Josef: 346 pages (2001) |
Charming and thoughtful story of a father of two young children who grows up with them and in the process grows up for a second time in his life | |
| Özdogan,
Selim: 187 pages (2000) |
This novel was the source of the road-movie of the same title shown at the 2001 Sydney Film Festival, a charming story about love pursued across half the European Continent. | |
| Reventlow, zu, Franziska 112pages (2001) |
A young woman flees from her creditors to a sanatorium in order to await her inheritance. Charming and unconventional novel. | |
| Rimpau,
Cornelia: 349 pages (2000) |
Marie is only nine when her parents die in a car accident. The car contained a valuable painting, now lost. The diary of Marie’s grandmother throws light on the past and generates new mysteries. | |
| Schlink,
Bernhard: 265 pages (2001) |
This novel has a punning title: it can mean either ‘suicide’ or ‘Selb’s Murder.’ It forms the last part of Schlink's ('The Reader') Selb trilogy. Here Selb is assigned a task that initially doesn’t interest him. Eventually, however, he becomes excessively engrossed. | |
| Schlüter, Wolfgang: 426 pages (2001) |
After having a bet with a strange teacher a young musicologist faces attacks on her life. A very exciting novel that will grip not only music lovers. | |
| Schneider, Rolf: 163 pages (2001) |
The writer and essayist Rolf Schneider brilliantly introduces 20 love stories by prominent German writers. | |
| Schröter, Lorenz: 331 pages (2001) |
The story of the astronomer Le Gentil who in 1760 travels to India in order to study the planet Venus. The war threatens his life work. Well researched and written novel. | |
| Schultz,
Joachim: 244 pages (2001) |
A virtual journey through Germany's castles and palaces via texts by German and international literary authors. NOT a picture book. | |
| Schütt,
Siegfried: Liebe, Liebe lass mich los: Goethe und die Frauen Love, Love, Let Me Go: Goethe and Women 198 pages (2001) Langen Müller, Munich ISBN: 3784428290 |
Vividly written stories, anecdotes and humorous interpretations of Goethe’s eight most important love affairs. | |
| Seuren,
Günter: 317 pages (2001) |
At the end of the 1920s a couple divest themselves of all obligations, leaves Berlin, and migrates to the uninhabited Galapagos Islands. But the imagined Garden of Eden proves to be a frightening wilderness and the arrival of other refugees results in hatred, brutality and murder. |
Geelong Regional City Library, VIC |
| Silber,
Rolf: 218 pages (2001) |
Rainer Licht actually wants to commit suicide but is stopped by having to prevent a rape and subsequent legal complications. So his suicide just has to wait ... until a very happy ending, naturally. | |
| Soden,
Kristine von: Der Rhein eine literarische Reise von Mainz bis Köln The River Rhine: A Literary Journey From Mainz to Cologne 216 pages (2000) Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart ISBN: 360891868X |
Literary
journey along the Rhine from Mainz to Cologne. Brilliant mixture of the
author's own impressions with citations from classical writers (among them Mary Shelley, Byron ...) |
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| Soria,
Corinna: 170 pages (2001) |
Nine miniatures written in colourful language that deals with love, friendship and personal encounters. | |
| Thies,
Heinrich: 304 pages (2001) |
The moving story of Hanna who is forced to work as a maidservant by the early death of her parents. A novel of outstanding quality. |
Geelong Regional City Library, VIC |
| Timm,
Uwe: 127 pages (2001) |
The protagonist has lost all his youthful hopes and ideals and turned his melancholy into a profession: he delivers funeral eulogies. With his new novel Timm reaffirms his reputation as a gifted and witty writer. | |
| Unger,
Heinz Rudolf: 127 pages (2001) |
In the last days of World War II the mix of Nazis, opportunists and highly principled individuals in an Austrian village reflect patterns in human behaviour. | |
| Venske,
Regula (Editor): 191 pages (2001) |
Twenty-nine authors reflect on the meaning of life. An important book. |
Geelong Regional City Library, VIC |
| Wagner,
Richard: 190 pages (2001) |
The German-Romanian author analyses the impact which Romanian dictatorship has had on two emigrants to Germany: the former secret serVICe agent Dino and the author and dissident Klaus Richartz. | |
| Wolf,
Christa: 224pages (2001) |
New edition of Wolf’s provocative adaptation of the classical story. It makes literarily and intellectually challenging, brilliant reading. | |
| Wulf,
Kirsten: 236 pages (2000) |
Hardly any princesses, but memories of childhood and growing up in the 30s and 40s near Dresden. The narrative encapsulates the horrors and joys of the time. | |
List Summer 2002/03 |
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