Book Reviews John K. Cox Jurij Koch / Courtesy of Domowina-Verlag In the 1950s, a girl whom Jurij Koch knew in high school moved away from their hometown of Cottbus in East Germany. It was a case, he says in his recent memoir, of “Weg von Ulbricht, hin zu Adenauer” (Away from Ulbricht, over to Adenauer). Her mother took the girl to the West, before the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. This is a familiar enough arc of events, but, as it turns out, the motivation behind the move is probably not something that most people outside of Germany would have considered. The reason was ethnic. Little Greta was growing up surrounded by Sorbs in the southeastern part of the country. The Sorbian language reminded her mother of Polish, and she had had quite enough of the Poles in her pre-1945 home farther east. In addition, Greta’s family was Protestant and they felt awash in a “Catholic sea.” So off they went, leaving the author of this autobiography—who, well, yes, had a crush on Greta—scratching his head. Like so many other scenes in this engaging book, this story blends the customary with the unexpected to stretch our understanding of what is “German.” Like so many other scenes in this engaging book, Koch’s memoir blends the customary with the unexpected to stretch our understanding of what is “German.” Windrad auf dem Dach (Domowina-Verlag, 2016) is the second volume of Koch’s memoirs to be published in German. Currently in his... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2020-01-27 20:47:13 UTC ]
On Translation Browsing a Copenhagen airport bookstore, a translator picks up a book. The journey between that impulse and his eventual translation of the memoir into English was both emotional and serendipitous. In the summer of 2016 I was passing... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-04-06 13:12:22 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Erik Hoel on the joy of growing up in an indie bookstore—and with his badass single mom, who opened The Jabberwocky in 1972 when she was 23 years old. | Lit Hub Memoir “You may have noticed that anger is making a comeback for women.” Gina Frangello on rage and infidelity. | Lit Hub “These […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-04-06 09:30:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In “Blow Your House Down,” Gina Frangello examines her experience of loss, lust, pain and longing with angry intensity. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-04-06 09:00:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In “The Wild Silence,” a sequel to her best-selling memoir “The Salt Path,” the British author contends with the illness and death of loved ones but finds solace outdoors. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-04-06 09:00:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this
On Friday, Politico published an excerpt from On the House, a forthcoming memoir by John Boehner, the Republican former House speaker, that, in Politico’s words, is the story of “how America’s center-right party started to lose its mind, as told by the man who tried to keep it sane.” The excerpt... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-04-05 12:13:42 UTC ]
More news stories like this
William Morrow preempts a debut novel by Liz Stein, Michelle Tea sells a memoir about the reproductive industrial complex to Dey Street, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-04-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Octopus imprint Monoray is to publish Drinking Custard: The Diary of a Confused Mum, a "hilarious" memoir on the trials and tribulations of motherhood from comedian Lucy Beaumont. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-01 13:58:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Faber has pre-empted music industry veteran Tony King’s memoir on a nine-minute video submission. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-01 07:02:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Lit Lists Earlier this spring, the editors of WLT invited twenty-one writers to nominate one book, published since the year 2000, that has had a major influence on their own work, along with a brief statement explaining their choice. Now it’s your turn... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-03-31 20:04:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In “Beautiful Things,” the president’s son addresses issues that shaped his life and father’s campaign Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-03-31 07:45:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Manifesto will chart the first Black Booker prize winner’s 40-year journey to literary centre-stage and encourage others to pursue creative fulfilmentBernardine Evaristo, the first Black woman to win the Booker prize, is writing a memoir about how she “moved from the margins to centre stage”... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-03-27 09:00:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In “Plunder,” a memoir by Menachem Kaiser, the author tries to repossess a building owned by his grandfather before the war and discovers a history he knew nothing about. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-16 09:00:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Pulitzer Prize winner John Archibald reexamines his father’s legacy in this fascinating blend of family memoir and moral reckoning. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-03-13 14:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Back in January 2018, freelance journalist Mason began work on a new novel in the little shed in her back garden in Sydney. She already had two books under her belt with HarperCollins Australia, a memoir of early motherhood—the brilliantly titled Say it Again in a Nice Voice—and her début novel... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-12 23:02:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Walker Books is to publish Sticky McStickstick, a new personal memoir picture book from Michael Rosen, illustrated by Tony Ross, exploring Rosen's personal experience of illness and recovery from Covid-19. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-12 15:54:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A few months ago my friend Nick Lyons, long admired for books about his passion for fishing, published a beautiful memoir, Fire in the Straw. Reading the book has underscored, in a personal way, the gap between life and literature that so many of us take for granted. I’m familiar with quite a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-03-12 09:48:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this
But “Between Two Kingdoms,” her memoir of cancer and its aftermath, is striking a chord with readers who are enduring ordeals of their own. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-11 10:00:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Interviews Photo by Sonette Watt Stephanie McKenzie is a poet and scholar who works for the English Programme at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her scholarly work has traced the flourishing of Indigenous literature in... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-03-09 21:39:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In the memoir “Model Citizen,” Joshua Mohr recounts a life of substance abuse, real love and “cheery nihilism.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-09 10:00:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this
He took his British brand of satire to nightclubs, TV, film (“This Is Spinal Tap”) and National Lampoon. But a memoir led to a sex-abuse accusation. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-05 19:48:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this