"Her mother comes back. As she walks past, she removes the sheet covering the hall mirror, folds it up, and carries it into the baby's room. She lays it at the bottom of the suitcase she's brought along for just this purpose, then takes the child's things from their drawer and puts them in the suitcase with the sheet. During the months that proceeded the child's birth, all of them - the pregnant woman, her mother, and her grandmother - sewed, knitted, and embroidered these jackets, dresses, and caps. Her mother now shuts the empty drawer. On top of the chest is the toy with the little silver bells. When she picks it up, the bells make a jingling sound. They jingled yesterday as well, when her daughter was still a mother playing with her child. The jingling hasn't changed in the twenty-four hours that have passed since then."
From The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck (Portobello Books; translation Susan Bernofsky)
Jenny Erpenbeck *1967
To regular visitors of my blog, Jenny Erpenbeck isn't actually an 'unknown' author anymore. I had her already presented on my blog after I saw her at the EdBookFest in 2011 (read here). That time it was her then recently published book Visitation (org: Heimsuchung) which was in focus then.
So, why presenting the author another time?
Well, times fly and Jenny Erpenbeck is nominated for the "Europese Literatuurprijs 2015" with her latest book Een handvol sneeuw (orig: Aller Tage Abend (2012)/ UK: The End of Days).
This particular literary prize is a Dutch/Flemish cooperation and an initiative to highlight books by European authors and their Dutch/Flemish translators (see regulations (Dutch only)). The longlist 2015 highlights on 20 authors from 11 European countries: Portugal, Spain, France, UK, Finland, Norway, Germany, Iceland, Switzerland, Greece and Italy whereas the translation spans even further as Mikhail Pavlovich Shishkin writes in Russian though living in Switzerland.
Additionally, Jenny Erpenbeck crystallises more and more into a young, diligent high-class author. An author in the league of a Kamila Shamsie and Kiran Desai, a family background of writers included. She has such a unique voice of her own, her style of writing is brilliant, her use of words polished and refined, while her approach to the chosen subject is remarkable and singular.
So it is with her latest book The End of Days, nominated for the above mentioned literary prize: WHEN comes the end of days? As a child? As a young girl? As a young woman? As an elderly lady? Jenny uses five possibilities as a canvas to describe the lives that might or might not have taken place beforehand. As a reader we are five times lead into some metaphorical dead-end streets. Yet the narrator knows a rat run each time that takes us four times back again on to the main road.
Typically Jenny, the book is written in a minor mode, quietly moving ahead, very introverted, inside orientated. It's like she takes you along an inner search to the essence of life while creating five times a possible pattern that might lead to a possible end.
And it is about loss. Especially the last chapter echoes the loss when one realises that there won't be and cannot be another rat run to the main road. It's a loss not only of dear ones but losses that span generations, closing a circle, reminding me of her other book Things That Disappear (orig. Dinge, die verschwinden (2009)). A circle that starts and ends with objects and stories emerging and re-emerging, echoing in the reader's ears reminding one on how everything started.
A quiet and simple story; one could also read it as a philosophical hi-story refuting the idea that history is a linear progress as the Western world strongly believes. In her novel Jenny resounds the philosophy of the Eastern world that hi-story is a cyclic progress resuming at 'the end of days'.
The more I read by Jenny the more I grow fascinated by her style, her tone, her writer's idiosyncrasy, though there seems a familiarity of characters. A strong novel from a noteworthy German author.
The other titles nominated for the prize are certainly as strong, all of them first-class literature by authors as Finnish writer Sofi Oksanen, French writer Karine Tuil, or Greek author Yannis Kiourtsakis with his classic Double Exile (NL: Bij wijze van roman) actually also listed as a 'rediscovery' by schwob, another Dutch/Flamish cooperation (zie here). By September we should learn who won the prize. I'll keep you informed.
P.S.: For those living in the Netherlands and interested in meeting the various translators there are a variety of possibilities. Just check the site www.europeseliteratuurprijs.nl for more information.
So, why presenting the author another time?
Well, times fly and Jenny Erpenbeck is nominated for the "Europese Literatuurprijs 2015" with her latest book Een handvol sneeuw (orig: Aller Tage Abend (2012)/ UK: The End of Days).This particular literary prize is a Dutch/Flemish cooperation and an initiative to highlight books by European authors and their Dutch/Flemish translators (see regulations (Dutch only)). The longlist 2015 highlights on 20 authors from 11 European countries: Portugal, Spain, France, UK, Finland, Norway, Germany, Iceland, Switzerland, Greece and Italy whereas the translation spans even further as Mikhail Pavlovich Shishkin writes in Russian though living in Switzerland.So it is with her latest book The End of Days, nominated for the above mentioned literary prize: WHEN comes the end of days? As a child? As a young girl? As a young woman? As an elderly lady? Jenny uses five possibilities as a canvas to describe the lives that might or might not have taken place beforehand. As a reader we are five times lead into some metaphorical dead-end streets. Yet the narrator knows a rat run each time that takes us four times back again on to the main road.
Typically Jenny, the book is written in a minor mode, quietly moving ahead, very introverted, inside orientated. It's like she takes you along an inner search to the essence of life while creating five times a possible pattern that might lead to a possible end.
And it is about loss. Especially the last chapter echoes the loss when one realises that there won't be and cannot be another rat run to the main road. It's a loss not only of dear ones but losses that span generations, closing a circle, reminding me of her other book Things That Disappear (orig. Dinge, die verschwinden (2009)). A circle that starts and ends with objects and stories emerging and re-emerging, echoing in the reader's ears reminding one on how everything started. A quiet and simple story; one could also read it as a philosophical hi-story refuting the idea that history is a linear progress as the Western world strongly believes. In her novel Jenny resounds the philosophy of the Eastern world that hi-story is a cyclic progress resuming at 'the end of days'.
The more I read by Jenny the more I grow fascinated by her style, her tone, her writer's idiosyncrasy, though there seems a familiarity of characters. A strong novel from a noteworthy German author.
The other titles nominated for the prize are certainly as strong, all of them first-class literature by authors as Finnish writer Sofi Oksanen, French writer Karine Tuil, or Greek author Yannis Kiourtsakis with his classic Double Exile (NL: Bij wijze van roman) actually also listed as a 'rediscovery' by schwob, another Dutch/Flamish cooperation (zie here). By September we should learn who won the prize. I'll keep you informed. P.S.: For those living in the Netherlands and interested in meeting the various translators there are a variety of possibilities. Just check the site www.europeseliteratuurprijs.nl for more information.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)