review
Weiskern’s Estate is classic Hein. In a case study at once social and psychological, the reader experiences the protagonist’s bewilderment at contemporary society and anguish as he recalls incidents from his past that have led to his current plight.
Life doesn’t seem to accord literature professor Stolzenburg the respect due to his age and profession. He slaves part-time at an institute for cultural studies, and finds it increasingly hard to uphold his high standards at a time of cutbacks and apathetic students. His real passion is his life work, a Complete Works of obscure librettist Weiskern. But will anyone publish it?
Soon the cracks in Stolzenburg’s life start to show: an unexplained tax bill; being suspected by the police of offering faked documents for sale; assault by a group of schoolgirls. Everything comes to a head when he is on a flight to give a guest lecture, and suddenly the propellers stop working …
Hein’s works have consistently achieved wide appeal, and this novel also turns a mirror on some universal aspects of European societies: ageing, the crisis of higher education, the plight of older people, rising street violence, generation gaps, and the marginalisation of literature in the digital age.
rights information
Suhrkamp Verlag
Pappelallee 78-79
10437 Berlin, Germany
Tel: +49 30 740744 0
Email: hardt@suhrkamp.de (USA), mercurio@suhrkamp.de (UK & Commonwealth)
Contact: Dr. Petra Hardt (USA), Nora Mercurio (UK & Commonwealth)
www.suhrkamp.de/foreignrights
Suhrkamp Verlag was founded in 1950 by Peter Suhrkamp and directed for over forty years by Dr. Siegfried Unseld. The independent publishing company now includes Insel Verlag (founded in Leipzig in 1899), the Jüdischer Verlag (founded in Berlin in 1902), as well as the Deutscher Klassiker Verlag (established in 1981) and the newly founded Verlag der Weltreligionen (established in 2006). Suhrkamp focuses on both contemporary literature and the humanities. Its distinguished list includes leading writers from Germany, Switzerland and Austria, many of whom made their debuts with the firm, besides major international authors of both fiction and non-fiction, including several Nobel Prize winners.
translation assistance
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All recommendations from Autumn 2011