The Project
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Moll Flanders Defoe, Daniel
Some time around the beginning of the eighteenth century, story-telling changed. It didn’t happen all at once – these things rarely do – but steadily and irrevocably narrative poems and ...
Wie im Wald Klar, Elisabeth
When Karin invites her foster sister Lisa to move back with her and her boyfriend Alexander to their childhood home, Lisa agrees right away. Their parents have died and their siblings have all ...
Lichter in Menlo Park Urweider, Raphael (Lights in Menlo Park)
Raphael Urweider’s volume of poetry «Lights in Menlo Park» captures the world in its material guise. He finds a commanding and mature voice to write about continents, clouds, nature and all ...
Steiners Geschichte Göttfert, Constantin
The Long Shadows of the Past Constantin Göttfert is a sensitive storyteller who gives his characters the room they need to unload their weighty stories. The subject of “Steiners ...
zwischen Pfeifer, Judith Nika
Tales from an indecisive life The title of poet Judith Nika Pfeifer’s first prose collection – zwischen (between) – is unpretentious, even restrained. It calls to mind an intermediate ...
A gyerek Háy, János
Yet that wasn’t what he became. He could have, but didn’t. The novel conjures up possible paths and visions of successful lives, but then leaves them not only unfulfilled but lets them succumb ...
Wandlungen des Prinzen Genji Federmair, Leopold
“Took the train to Miyajimaguchi, about an hour on the Sanyo line, in one of the carriages that have been in use for five or six decades.” We are in Japan, along with a protagonist who ...
A Breathless Hush in the Close Morgan, Ann
A Breathless Hush in the Close is Ann Morgan’s first novel and takes its title from Henry Newbolt’s well-known late nineteenth century poem Vitaï Lampada. The lines 'Play up! Play up! and ...
Kindheitswald Laznia, Elke
“Writing holds my hand” How does the past smell? Like the green moss of the titular “childhood forest”? Or the gray dust of the childhood home, casting inward shadows? The important ...
Das Fell der Tante Meri Bauer, Theodora
At the beginning, everything is up in the air. Theodora Bauer’s cryptically titled novel, “Das Fell der Tante Meri” (“Aunt Meri’s Fur”), narrates the story of three characters - ...
Vom Gebrauch der Wünsche Mischkulnig, Lydia
This book starts off explosively. The setting is an estate in Sievering, an outer district of Vienna. This is “the erstwhile property of a displaced family,” where young Leon and his mother go ...
Durchleuchtung Schmatz, Ferdinand
A new and wild novel by the writer Ferdinand Schmatz: Durchleuchtung [Illumination]. Obviously if you grew up in Austria, it immediately makes you think of Durchleuchten-Gehen [‘getting yourself ...
Der Allesforscher Steinfest, Heinrich
The title of Heinrich Steinfest’s new novel could be translated as ‘The Everything Researcher.’ But what does that mean exactly - someone who researches everything that has ever existed, or ...
Cross Channel Barnes, Julian
Like many readers, I first discovered Julian Barnes through his inspired third book, Flaubert's Parrot , but have found it hard not to feel that his more recent novels have failed to live up to ...
mutig, mutig Kathrin Schärer (Ill.), Lorenz Pauli (Text), (brave, brave)
Before the actual adventure even begins, the four protagonists leap out at us from the cover. Soon they reach the pond and have no idea what to get up to – yet. The frog, finally, has the ...
Geister und Tattoos Prosser, Robert
Robert Prosser’s newest novel, “Geister und Tattoos” (“Spirits and Tattoos”), is about the residents of a small village on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. After the Nagorno-Karabakh ...
The Good Plain Cook Roberts, Bethan
Some books are chic simply virtue of their setting. Such a one if The Good Plain Cook by Bethan Roberts. It is the summer of 1936 and a Sussex girl, Kitty Allen, is in search of more ...
Johanna im Zug Schärer, Kathrin (Johanna by Train)
We are sitting alongside the artist at her worktable. In front of us lie coloured pencils, brushes, scissors, Max Frisch’s «Biography: A Game» and a nearly empty sheet of paper. A railway ...
Regeln des Tanzes Stangl, Thomas
A fragile condition A lonely old man (Dr. Walter Steiner) walks aimlessly through the streets of Vienna. He’s retired, his wife has left him and he senses “a wonderful ...
Einer, der nichts merkte Käthi Bhend (Ill.) , Robert Walser (Text), (One Who Noticed Nothing)
The yarn of Robert Walser’s ultra-short stories is spun from everyday life and woven effortlessly together, as if by a child. The tapestries tell of the fragility of life and yet report on real ...
Mittelstadtrauschen Kinstner, Margarita
"Mittelstadtrauschen" begins like any romance. Marie and Jakob meet in a coffee house, check each other out and start a relationship. Like most people around the age of thirty, ...
Ballastexistenz Dolgan, Christoph
How deep is rock bottom? When did the plunge begin? How far down is the bottom? These are questions asked only by ...
Mutter und der Bleistift Winkler, Josef
Two stories can be found in Josef Winkler’s new book, “Da flog das Wort auf” (Then the Word Exploded) and the story from which the title of the book is taken “Mutter und der ...
Bis auf die Knochen Ritte, Jürgen (Hg. von Jürgen Ritte)
The OuLiPo workshop and its best-known representatives, Queneau, Pastior or Perec are like a kitchen where language is constantly being cooked up. Therefore, it is no accident that the “workshop ...
Südbalkon Straub, Isabella
Isabella Straub knows not only how to write but also how to present her work. However, the media attention garnered by her debut is the result of the precision of her craft and the complex ...
Fuck you, Eu.ro.Pa! Esinencu, Nicoleta (Aus dem Rumän. von Helga Kopp)
“Everyday life in Moldavia is extremely brutal – if I had to explain how it is, one to one, I’d have to become even more coarse. We have a massive identity crisis, and we are Europe’s ...
Quasikristalle Menasse, Eva
It’s difficult to categorize Eva Menasse’s novel Quasikristalle (Quasi-crystals). At first, the reader might ...
We Are At War Garfield, Simon
This collection of diary entries were all submitted to the Mass Observation archive in the UK. I had never heard of the MO until I picked up this book. I suppose it was a sort of Big Brother of ...
Unsicherer Grund Neeser, Andreas
A narrator remembers a football game when he was at school, while he was silently watching a beautiful woman in the swimming pool. Or he goes to the theatre in the evening and his heart almost ...
Grundlsee Ernst, Gustav
The novel begins when its narrator wakes up. The first very dense section reveals the situation of a family with three small children in a house on a lake in the Austrian Salzkammergut, where the ...
