Summer with Emma
Sommer mit Emma

elisabeth maria staub martina borger sommer mit emma
Diogenes Verlag
July 2009 / 416pp
Fiction

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review

No one had expected it to be easy. A barge holiday in England, where they would have to function as a team again: Luise, her husband Daniel, big brother Jasper, his good friend Can, Lea, the feisty, wise sister, now fifteen – and, also fifteen, Emma, the result of Daniel’s brief affair, was to join them. Beautiful, angelic Emma, with her long blond hair, and even longer legs, who spoke German with the sweetest Californian accent and was a photographer’s dream – Daniel is bursting with pride, as his ‘new’ daughter warms to him: perhaps she will even be the inspiration for his new exhibition.

The others are ready to welcome her too, however much the facts still hurt Luise; open Lea reaches out to her, and surely such a pretty, funny, charming creature should be easy to like. But there is something about her, Can decides, that is not quite right, a cruel streak, a dangerous recklessness, a hidden shard of ice that could well endanger the equilibrium of the family as she determinedly makes for the prize she regards as hers: Daddy.

Macabre undertones, sustained tension, shared narrative perspective, winning characters in Lea and Can, this is a read that’s full of laughter but also tears, and drama galore.

about the authors

Martina Borger and Maria Elisabeth Straub have been writing as a successful partnership for almost twenty years, despite living far apart from each other in Munich and on the Danish border respectively

Previous works include:
Katzenzungen (2001); Kleine Schwester (2002); Im Gehege (2004) – all Diogenes.

Translated editions of previous works have been published in:
Russia (Inostranka Publishers); Poland (Wydawnictwo C&T); Czech Republic (Mlada Fronta).

Martina Borger and Maria Elisabeth Straub have been writing as a successful partnership for almost twenty years, despite living far apart from each other in Munich and on the Danish border respectively

Previous works include:
Katzenzungen (2001); Kleine Schwester (2002); Im Gehege (2004) – all Diogenes.

Translated editions of previous works have been published in:
Russia (Inostranka Publishers); Poland (Wydawnictwo C&T); Czech Republic (Mlada Fronta).

rights information

Diogenes Verlag AG
Tel: +41 1 254 8511
Email: bau@diogenes.ch
Contact: Susanne Bauknecht
www.diogenes.ch 

Diogenes Verlag was founded in Zurich in 1952 by Daniel Keel and Rudolf C. Bettschart. One of the leading international publishing houses, it numbers among its authors Alfred Andersch, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Patricia Highsmith, Donna Leon, Bernhard Schlink and Patrick Süskind. Children's authors include Tatjana Hauptmann, Ute Krause, Karl Friedrich Waechter and Tomi Ungerer.

translation assistance

Pro Helvetia covers up to 100% of the effective translation costs for literary works by Swiss authors.

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