Incentives - New Literature from Austria

readme.cc provides multilingual access to the latest Austrian literature. In collaboration with the Literaturhaus in Vienna the reading forum offers the latest insights about literature published in Austria.

Literary journalists and researchers introduce current new publications; reading samples allow for a closer look at the texts; short portraits of the authors complement the picture.

The range of information is currently available in five languages: German, English, French, Czech and Hungarian.

The Project "Incentives" targets at the internationalization of Austrian literature, respectively the translation of current texts.

Project realization: the Office of Documentation of Contemporary Austrian Literature (reviews, author’s portraits) – The Association of Translators (translations) – readme.cc (infrastructure).

http://www.literaturhaus.at

[ book tip by Literatur Schweiz ] «No matter where he’s coming from, because he has all the necessary papers, Potocki can go as he pleases, without let or hindrance: for example, he can sail into any one of the Maghreb ports that are so heavily guarded by the local military or merchant marine…go ashore, find quarters, change money, plan his next voyage, buy provisions, sign on porters and scouts and so forth.»  Potocki could do it all. Potocki?
Jan Nepomucem Count Potocki (1761 – 1815) was considered during his lifetime to be one of the richest men in Europe. He travelled the world, and left behind a milestone of European literary history, his book 'The Saragossa Manuscript'. In 'Another Life for John Potocki', Felix Philipp Ingold follows the trail of this legendary Polish nobleman and playfully, fancifully, effortlessly, weaves in biographical detail. Malta, London, Africa, Asia, St Petersburg; encounters with chess-automata, a talking ape, glittering parties, wherever he goes…and then the end of his life, about which there are many conflicting accounts. However it happened, it was a life-story made to be told.
Ingold creates a fascinating and wide-ranging drama from the many episodes of Potocki’s ‘real’ life, and draws on countless historical and fictional characters to create the cast of his ‘other’ life. This story-biography is based partly on Ingold’s own fantasies and experiences, but also on his independent research, typical of his approach to all the characters he writes about.
(Martin Zingg, translated by Max Easterman, Rosie Goldsmith)
 
Recommended for translation by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, www.12swissbooks.ch

[ Favourite quote ] «Wie nicht beginnen? Einen bestimmten Anlass oder zumindest einen bestimmenden Zufall dafür gibt es allemal.»

[ book info ] Ingold, Felix Philipp: Noch ein Leben für John Potocki. (original language: German) Another Life for John Potocki. Matthes & Seitz Verlag, Berlin, 2013 . ISBN: 978-3-88221-075-0.