If only she would be quiet! Her pullover was already quite damp from the excitement and the screaming, and her face was so dark red that it looked almost violet. His own shirt was wet and sticky at the shoulder from her saliva. He knew his way around children, with infants too. He actually knew … Continue reading Crime Excerpt: First There Was Silence by Leonie Haubrich (Germany)
MAYBE ONE DAY PLASTIC BAGS WILL BE BETTER THAN GULLS It’s as if the buildings are breaking over people. One, two, puke: big chunks, everyone dead. A couple of architects on speed wanted to play Tetris against each other, and then everything got out of hand. Brutal boulders in washed concrete and steel stand around … Continue reading Crime Fiction Excerpt: Mexico Street by Simone Buchholz (Germany)
It seems an impossible coexistence: German Grundlichkeit in one of the Amazonian cityscapes, filled with myths, religions, folk tales, and superstition. Yet, this is exactly what Cramer – scouting locations for a movie – has to grapple with if he is to survive in this personally exotic environment. Already with his first steps out of … Continue reading World Languages Review: Der Mann, der den Regen fotografierte (Germany)
This is a beautiful large-scale nonfiction board book for young children. Each double spread depicts a glorious scene set in a particular season, with individual words picked out on the page. Spring, for example, has a title reading "Im Frühling wird es draussen grün" (In Spring, outside everything turns green) and picks out words like … Continue reading World Languages Review: Alle vier Jahreszeiten by Katrin Wiehle (Germany)
Ruth Wolff-Stirner My mother became sick very quickly. Because of the unhygienic living conditions in Shanghai, her liver became infected and she died at the age of 46. That was in 1954 and I was eight. My father kept me away from her. I didn’t see her anymore after she was taken to the hospital. … Continue reading Excerpt: Going Back by Andrea von Treuenfeld (Germany)
Chapter 1Goodbye, California “No, No, NO!” Lucy screamed, clapping her ears shut. Her mother pulled Lucy’s hands down and held them tightly. “Sweetheart, please try to understand,” she said. “It’s the perfect opportunity for me to spend a few weeks with Kurt. He called just a little while ago and I had to … Continue reading Excerpt: The Greenest Wind by Gesine Schulz
If you’ve ever had long-awaited plans cancelled at the last minute, you’ll know Lucy’s frustration. She’s been looking forward to going to California with her mother for their summer vacation, but then her mother decides to go on a cruise with her boyfriend instead. Unable to join her father or her best friend on their … Continue reading Review: The Greenest Wind by Gesine Schulz
Oskar Matzerath, the diminutive anti-hero of Günter Grass' THE TIN DRUM, was unleashed upon the English-speaking world in 1961. This first translation from the German was by Ralph Manheim. Weird, sweeping, brilliant, it’s frequently nominated as one of the great 20th century novels. Manheim’s translation contributed to the book’s huge international success, but from the … Continue reading Translators Association – 60 Years of Classic Translations: The Tin Drum (1961)
This is the first post in a new series of title picks for libraries building world languages collections. We will provide links to the foreign rights pages to publishers around the world. The descriptions for these non-translations will be in English and will include, when possible, sample translations, which will give you a flavor of … Continue reading World Languages Title Pick: Flaetscher – Die Sache Stinkt! by Antje Szillat (Germany)
"Bambi, a Life in the Woods, originally published in Austria as Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde is a 1923 Austrian novel written by Felix Salten and published by Ullstein Verlag. The novel traces the life of Bambi, a male roe deer, from his birth through childhood, the loss of his mother, the finding of … Continue reading International Banned Book: Bambi by Felix Salten
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 