Bøger i The Seagull Library of German Literature serien

Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973) is recognized as one of postwar German literature's most important novelists, poets, and playwrights. Nearly twenty years after her death, during an estate sale in Vienna, fifteen episodes of the Viennese radio drama The Radio Family were discovered. This book features these fifteen scripts.

A renowned novel of self-deceit and self-acceptance. Arrested and imprisoned in a small Swiss town, a prisoner begins this book with an exclamation: "I'm not Stiller!" He claims that his name is Jim White, and that he has been jailed under false charges and under the wrong identity. To prove he is who he claims to be, he confesses to three unsolved murders and recalls in great detail an adventuresome life in America and Mexico among cowboys and peasants, in back alleys and docks. He is consumed by "the morbid impulse to convince," but no one believes him. This is a harrowing account-part Kafka, part Camus-of the power of self-deception and the freedom that ultimately lies in self-acceptance. Simultaneously haunting and humorous, I'm Not Stiller has come to be recognized as one of the major post-war works of fiction and a masterpiece of German literature.

A unique portrait of a revolutionary movement that is largely unknown outside Spain. Northern Spain is the only part of Western Europe where anarchism played a significant role in the political life of the twentieth century. Enjoying wide-ranging support among both the urban and rural working class, its importance peaked during its "brief summer"--the civil war between the Republic and General Franco's Falangists, during which anarchists even participated in the government of Catalonia. Anarchy's Brief Summer brings anarchism to life by focusing on the charismatic leader Buenaventura Durruti (1896-1936), who became a key figure in the Spanish Civil War after a militant and adventurous youth. The basis of the book is a compilation of texts: personal testimony, interviews with survivors, contemporary documents, memoirs, and academic assessments. They are all linked by Enzenberger's own assessment in a series of glosses--a literary form that is somewhere between retelling and reconstruction--with the contradiction between fiction and fact reflecting the political contradictions of the Spanish Revolution.

Offers a collection of poems where an exacting eye is cast on nature. The poet's perspective is observant, stringent, and very human, bringing both intellect and emotion to the page. Translated by Joseph Given, the verses are in turn scrutinizing, wistful about the brutality of nature, and rejoicing in the simple wonder of life.

IN

Close to death, an old man collapses and struggles to his bed. The sounds of the endless night unsettle him, triggering images, questions, and memories. On the brink of hysteria, the old man wracks his brain as the questions flow like water: Why did he inherit the building he now lives in? Why did he leave the city that was his home for so long?

A novel that follows the life of a man who, like the author, lived in the Lodz ghetto during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It gives expression to the author's perception of himself and the world and to his tireless attempt to bring his own tone of linguistic brevity, irony, and balance to German relations.

From her reflections on individual responsibility in the run-up to World War II to her reactions to accusations from her friends of having deserted Europe and the antifascist cause for Tehran, the author recorded a great deal about daily life in Persia, and, personally, her ill-fated love affair with Jale, the daughter of the Turkish ambassador.

In June 1939 Annemarie Schwarzenbach and fellow writer Ella Maillart set out from Geneva in a Ford, heading for Afghanistan. The first women to travel Afghanistan's Northern Road, they fled the storm brewing in Europe to seek a place untouched by what they considered to be Western neuroses. This title documents that Afghan journey.

A screenplay that was developed from an episode in the author's 1964 novel "Gantenbein", or "A Wilderness of Mirrors".

When Kurt Weber inherits his great-uncle‿s lakeside house, he finds traces of the dark secrets of his family‿s past. The early inhabitants of the house haunt his dreams nightly. And one day a ghostlike woman appears before him, hiding herself in a room that had been kept locked throughout his childhood. Inside, Kurt finds a hidden stash of photographs, letters, and documents. As he deciphers them, he gradually understands the degree of complicity in wartime horrors by his family and among his neighbors. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the entire village adheres to an old and widely understood agreement not to expose the many members in the community who had been involved with a nearby prison camp during World War II. This knowledge wraps the entire community‿those involved, and those who know of the involvement‿in inescapable guilt for generations. Translated from the original German by Tess Lewis, Ludwig‿s Room is a story of love, betrayal, honor, and cowardice, as well as the burden of history and the moral demands of the present.

The latest work by Peter Handke chronicles a day in life of an aging actor as he makes his way on foot from the outskirts of a great metropolis into its center.

"Drawings by Heinz Egger"--Title page verso.

Rainer Brambach, one of the most widely appreciated Swiss poets in the 1950s and '60s, was notorious for walking to the beat of his own drum, defying convention, and standing his ground against popular styles and trends. This collection of poems, represents a major English translation of this significant European poet.

Set in the time of the crucial 1970 Swiss referendum on immigration, this book introduces us to a host of colorful characters who struggle to make Switzerland their home: Eli, the Spanish bricklayer; Toni, the Italian factory worker with movie star looks; Madame Jelisaweta, the Yugoslav hairdresser; and Milena, the mysterious girl in the wardrobe.

The poems of Ulrike Almut Sandig are at once simple and fantastic. This new collection finds her on her way to imaginary territories. Thick of It charts a journey through two hemispheres to "the center of the world" and navigates a "thicket" that is at once the world, the psyche, and language itself.

One of Germany's best-known exponents of North Indian classical music, specifically dhrupad singing, Perer Pannke has traveled from his home in Germany to Varanasi, Delhi, Darbhanga, and the forests of Vrindaban to study classical Indian singing in the most famous gharanas - musical houses - of India. This title tells the story of a life in music.

Over ten rainy nights, Thomas, an ex-barge-man who used to be skipper of his own boat, walks the muddy fields of the land-locked German interior and remembers the events that lost him his home, his boat, and his livelihood. In this novel, Thomas remembers childhood, his first love, and the warning of his grandfather: Beware the dark company.

Begins with a man who receives a startling call from his ex-wife. She's in the hospital, awaiting a cancer diagnosis. His mind races as he suddenly realizes he must find out whether she was contaminated by fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The author's wife and young daughter have abandoned him, he has no work or prospects, he's blind in one eye, and he must move into a horribly tiny apartment with his only possession: a twenty-five-volume encyclopedia. This book explores themes such as the roles of family, history, and one's moral responsibility toward others.

Growing up in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, a young Kurdish boy named Kerim has ample opportunity to witness the murderous repression that defined the era for thousands of Iraqis. This book follows Kerim from the fading memories of his childhood to his life running his family's roadside restaurant.

Any new book by poet, essayist, writer, and translator Hans Magnus Enzensberger, one of the most influential and internationally renowned German intellectuals, is cause for notice, and Mr. Zed‿s Reflections is no exception. Every afternoon for almost a year, a plump man named Mr. Zed comes to the same spot in the city park and engages passersby with quick-witted repartee. Those who pass ask, who is this man? A wisecracker, a clown, a belligerent philosopher? Many shake their heads and move on; others listen to him, engage with him, and, again and again, end up at the same place. He doesn‿t write anything down, but his listeners often take notes. With subversive energy and masterful brevity, Mr. Zed undermines arrogance, megalomania, and false authority. A determined speaker who doesn‿t care for ambitions, he forces topics that others would rather keep to themselves. Reluctant to trust institutions and seeing absolutely nothing as “non-negotiable,â€? he admits mistakes and does away with judgment.  He is no mere ventriloquist dummy for his creator‿he is too stubborn for that. And at the end of the season, when it becomes too cold and uncomfortable in the park, he disappears, never to be seen again. Collected in this thought-provoking and unique work are the considerations and provocations of this squat, park-bench philosopher, giving us a volume of truths and conversations that are clear-cut, skeptical, and fiercely illuminating.