Michael Maar born in 1960, has taught at Stanford University and is a member of the illustrious German Academy for Language and Literature, founded in 1949 in the Paulskirche, Frankfurt am Main, on Goethe’s 200th birthday. Highly regarded as a critic and essayist, and the German expert on Vladimir Nabokov, this awardwinning writer now lives in Berlin. ‘Seductive…brilliantly written.’ – Neue Zürcher Zeitung, on Warum Nabokov Harry Potter gemocht hätte Previous works include: Geister und Kunst. Neuigkeiten aus dem Zauberberg (1995, Carl Hanser Verlag); Das Blaubartzimmer. Thomas Mann und die Schuld (2000, Suhrkamp Verlag); Warum Nabakov Harry Potter gemocht hätte (2002, Berlin Verlag); Die Glühbirne der Ertusker (2003, DuMont Verlag); Lolita und der deutsche Leutnant (2005, Suhrkamp Verlag) Translation rights available from: Berlin Verlag GmbH Greifswalder Str. 207 10405 Berlin, Germany Tel: +49 30 44 38 450 E-mail: s.oswald@berlinverlag.de Contact: Sabine Oswald Applications for assistance with translation costs - Germany Berlin Verlag was founded in 1995 as an independent publishing house. It publishes literary fiction and quality non-fiction for a wide audience and a select range of international authors. Berlin Verlag is also known for its work in developing promising young German writers, such as the acclaimed Ingo Schulze, Elke Schmitter, Irina Liebmann, Marcus Braun and Gila Lustiger as well as publishing the plays of Elfriede Jelinek, Nobel prize-winner in 2004. Since 2003, Berlin Verlag has belonged to the Bloomsbury Publishing group. After the successful launch of the children’s books list, Bloomsbury Kinder- & Jugendbücher, in 2003, a new imprint, Bloomsbury Berlin (headed by the Number One Spiegel bestseller, Schott’s Original Miscellany) marks its second phase of new developments.