Post by Carl LaFong on Jan 4, 2023 12:49:53 GMT
Translation of Brigitte Reimann’s 1963 work, considered a classic of GDR literature, is out in February
The first English translation of a novel by a cult voice of East German feminist literature will introduce the author Brigitte Reimann to a new audience in 2023, almost 50 years on from her death.
Reimann’s 1963 work Siblings (Die Geschwister) is due for publication in the UK and the United States in February, to coincide with the anniversary of her premature death. Considered a groundbreaking classic of GDR literature, she wrote it in her late 20s after the construction of the Berlin Wall, and tells the tale of a young woman’s ardent belief in her postwar generation’s attempts to build a bright and beautiful future based around the ideals of socialism and the heartbreaking impact her adherence to the project, at odds with the views of her brothers, has on the unity of her family.
“Her voice is really modern and bold, her excitement is infectious so that what stays with you is not so much her obsession with the particular idea of socialism, but her passionate, youthful belief in what the future should look like,” said Lucy Jones, who translated the 129-page novel, which Penguin is bringing out on 2 February as part of its Modern Classics series. “She also captures that apocalyptic mood we’re experiencing now, so that I think it is a very fitting novel for our times.”
The Berlin-based translator and writer spent years trying to secure a publisher’s interest in an English-language version of the novel. She was intimately invested in Reimann’s work, having in 2019, already translated I Have No Regrets, the first volume of her frank, often funny, life-affirming diaries, encapsulating what the writer described as “the intense clusters of life”, “the agitation, gossip and convoluted intrigues”.
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www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/04/east-german-feminist-author-gets-english-debut-50-years-after-death
The first English translation of a novel by a cult voice of East German feminist literature will introduce the author Brigitte Reimann to a new audience in 2023, almost 50 years on from her death.
Reimann’s 1963 work Siblings (Die Geschwister) is due for publication in the UK and the United States in February, to coincide with the anniversary of her premature death. Considered a groundbreaking classic of GDR literature, she wrote it in her late 20s after the construction of the Berlin Wall, and tells the tale of a young woman’s ardent belief in her postwar generation’s attempts to build a bright and beautiful future based around the ideals of socialism and the heartbreaking impact her adherence to the project, at odds with the views of her brothers, has on the unity of her family.
“Her voice is really modern and bold, her excitement is infectious so that what stays with you is not so much her obsession with the particular idea of socialism, but her passionate, youthful belief in what the future should look like,” said Lucy Jones, who translated the 129-page novel, which Penguin is bringing out on 2 February as part of its Modern Classics series. “She also captures that apocalyptic mood we’re experiencing now, so that I think it is a very fitting novel for our times.”
The Berlin-based translator and writer spent years trying to secure a publisher’s interest in an English-language version of the novel. She was intimately invested in Reimann’s work, having in 2019, already translated I Have No Regrets, the first volume of her frank, often funny, life-affirming diaries, encapsulating what the writer described as “the intense clusters of life”, “the agitation, gossip and convoluted intrigues”.
…
www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/04/east-german-feminist-author-gets-english-debut-50-years-after-death