Not a Single Word
Kein einziges Wort

andreas jungwirth kein einziges wort
Ravensburger Buchverlag Otto Maier
May 2014 / 352pp
Children’s & Young Adults’

This book is outside of the five-year window for guaranteed assistance with English language translation. We suggest getting in touch with the relevant funding body for an informal conversation about the possibility of support. Please refer to to our  recommendations page for books that are currently covered by our funding guarantee.

review

Andreas Jungwirth’s first novel is a rites-of-passage tale wrapped in a crime mystery, all imbued with a credible sense of youth. 

Disenchanted teen Simon makes a gruesome discovery – his grumpy old neighbour’s dog has been murdered mafia-style, with a ‘last warning’ note and bloody knife left beside the corpse. He phones the police, but Herr Vogt – who owns the land on which the dog has been found – arrives first, and sends Simon off to notify his neighbour of the dog’s demise. When Simon returns, the knife and note have disappeared and Vogt omits to mention either item to the police. Simon does tell the police, but feels pressured to stop talking and runs away. He receives a threatening phone call at home promising all sorts of horrors for him should he talk. 

Simon’s intense fear stops him speaking to anyone who could help, reflecting a typically teenage conflict between feeling invisible and at the mercy of adult decisions, and a paranoid sense of being watched constantly. 

The crime, the threat, the fear and the final resolution are the bones of the story, but the flesh is Simon’s response to these various elements – how he grows from a silent and disempowered boy to one who is able to tell the truth in its fullness.

about the author

Andreas Jungwirth was born in Linz in 1967, and studied acting at the Vienna conservatory. Starting in 2000, he worked as a radio playwright in Berlin, and since 2010 he has been working in Vienna again. He developed and directed the “Szene machen!” writing workshop for youths of the Vienna theatre. Kein einziges Wort is his first young-adult novel.

rights information

Ravensburger Buchverlag Otto Maier
Contact: Florence Christ
Tel: +49 (0) 751 86 1240
Email: florence.christ@ravensburger.de
www.foreignrights-ravensburger.com


The Ravensburger Buchverlag – founded in 1883 by Otto Maier – publishes Children’s and Young Adult books for all ages. The blue triangle is a guarantor for products of high quality. Ravensburger publishes storybooks for small children, books for first readers, and children’s non-fiction. They publish around 450 books per year, and more than 1,900 titles are available.

translation assistance

Applications for adult fiction or children’s books should be made to the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport in good time before the book goes to print.

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All recommendations from Autumn 2014