Ewald Arenz: “My little world”
Diana Mihaljevic from the Kirchseeon bookstore shares her soft spot for Ewald Arenz with the rest of the industry, after all, “The Great Summer” of Middle Franconia was voted the favorite novel of 2021 by the independent booksellers. With the collection of short stories “My Little World”, the family man now shows that he is also a master of the small form. This also convinced Mihaljevic: “Hardly read into it, I found the author great again. Already on three pages in this intimate and personal book he manages to present his humor with bizarre situational comedy. A perfect way to get to know Arenz.”
“My Little World” by Ewald Arenz offers short stories that put a smile on the reader’s face.
(Photo: Ars Vivendi/oh)
And not just him. In the pointed, often black humorous, but always affectionate 66 miniatures, the full-time teacher occasionally gives an insight into his everyday work. Above all, when reading, you meet three-year-old Otto, his siblings Theo (17) and Philly (13) and their mother, whose admirable composure in the face of shopping with behaviorally original teenagers, embarrassing toddler questions in the cinema or visits to museums with politically incorrect educators, probably everyone has a quiet one Puts a smile on your face, at least. It’s no coincidence that this Juliane reminds me of Ephraim Kishon’s “best wife of all”. But “My Little World”, which celebrates family in every line, definitely doesn’t have to hide from the stories of the Israeli master of the sharp pen with a heart.
Anna Nerkagi: “White Reindeer Moss”
It is a slim volume that makes Karen Schiöberg-Fey rave, barely 200 pages thick, but they pack a punch. This novel by an indigenous author from the Nenets people of northern Russia opens with black and white photographs by the famous photographer Sebastião Salgado. What they show tells a lot: herds of reindeer as far as the eye can see and young people with serious faces under their fur collars. “This wonderful niche gem is almost a year old,” says the Aßling bookseller, “but I would like to recommend it to everyone.”
Anna Nerkagi tells of the life of Siberian nomads in “White Reindeer Moss”.
(Photo: Faber and Faber /oh)
A native of northwestern Siberia, Anna Nerkagi was separated from her parents at the age of six and forced to live in a boarding school where indigenous languages and culture were forbidden. After studying geology, she soon returned to the nomadic way of life. As an author, Nerkagi provides fascinating insights into the everyday life of her special people. Poetically, she tells (originally in Russian) about the tragic generational conflict, the son who wants to break out and follow his great love to the city, while the mother does everything to keep him and live according to tradition. And then there is the old neighbor who is preparing for death… An appendix with the “Little ABC of Nenets life” provides the appropriate background information. “You dive into a totally different world without it being artificial,” says Schiöberg-Fey. “My customers are absolutely delighted.”
Martin Schäuble: “Cleanland”
It is a shudder, but not necessarily a pleasant one, that comes over you when you read the introduction to Karen Schiöberg-Fey’s youth book tip, originally published in 2020, now available in paperback. “The Five Laws of Absolute Purity (GAR) / 1. Purity offers protection / 2. Touch is dangerous / 3. Distance leads to safety / 4. Control serves health / 5. Health is more important than freedom”
“Cleanland” by Martin Schäuble plays after the “Great Pandemic” and thus offers plenty of material for discussion.
(Photo: Fischer/oh)
The story of first-person narrator Schilo takes place after the “Great Pandemic”. Everything is constantly disinfected, everyone has limited, registered contacts, grandma lives safely behind glass in the “room of insight” and if the safety suit you wear all the time accidentally tears, you have to go into quarantine. It is a society in which the corona measures have never been abolished, but rather tightened. Children and young people don’t know it any other way and faint at the sight of people kissing, exchanging bodily fluids and possibly pathogens. “The novel is told in a relatively unspectacular way, but is incredibly clairvoyant,” Schiöberg-Fey praises the work of Martin Schäuble, a political scientist with a doctorate, whose critical books for young people have often found their way into school reading. It is quite possible that it will be the same with this book. He always provides suitable discussion material.
Monika Helfer: “Lionheart”
Margot Bartl from the bookshop in Baldham recommends “Löwenherz” which is now the third family novel by Austrian author Monika Helfer. After “Die Bagage”, about the grandparents, and “Vati”, brother Richard is the focus here. A typesetter and painter who took his own life at the age of 30. “What fascinates me is how the author deals with the subject. It took her a long time before she was able to write about it. At the same time, she makes it clear that you can learn something from difficult experiences and don’t have to go under.”
A memorial for the beloved, dead brother is “Löwenherz” by Monika Helfer.
(Photo: Hanser/oh)
In fact, this spoiled, idiosyncratic Richard is so sympathetic that you just have to like him despite his fibs. And the more helper tells about the brother’s life – about the foundling dog and the stranger’s child, to whom the twenty-something gives a home – the more the reader grows fond of him. But that already pulls, because she knows from the beginning that the skinny child man will not survive the book. At first it seems that Richard is very lucky more than once. Especially when he is rescued by a pregnant woman while he is floating in a holey bathtub as a quasi non-swimmer. It is not foreseeable that she will later give him the worst blow in the neck of his life. In an interview, the 74-year-old author says that her brother was a strange bird, but that she thinks of him very often and fondly. Through her loving memorial of words, she has made sure that many others will feel the same after reading it, even though they have never met the man.
Edgar Selge: “Have you finally found us”
Like Elke Knitter from the Poinger bookstore, most people probably know and appreciate the mime Edgar Selge because of his multi-faceted acting in theatre, film and television. The bookseller only found out that the 1948-born son of a prison director in East Westphalia grew up through his childhood memories “Have you finally found us.” A book that is told from the point of view of a 12-year-old and that Knitter finds “sometimes very depressing, but also super informative”. You learn a lot about the war and post-war period and how what you experienced first shaped the people and then their family life.
“Have you finally found us” by Edgar Selge tells of the actor’s childhood.
(Photo: Rowohlt/oh)
She was particularly struck by the discrepancy between her father’s uncontrolled tantrums, including beatings with a cane, and his love of literature, art and music. The book tells us that it was not uncommon for eighty inmates from the juvenile detention center next door to be asked into the living room at home for the hobby pianist’s house concerts with a professional violinist. Their fates are also reported – and of the former Nazi greats, whom Selge’s father, as a prison director in Werl, had provided with extra cells and other benefits. Generals whose death sentences were first commuted to life before being allowed out of prison in 1953.
Stefanie vor Schulte: “Boy with a black cock”
Hedwig Wobken, owner of the Kirchseeon bookstore, is deeply impressed by a novel that starts with a tragedy: the father of the main character Martin wiped out the entire family when the boy was just three. Only the eleven-year-old and his faithful friend, the rooster, survived. Since then, Martin has hired himself out in the village, does small jobs and is despite the farmers – or is it? – uncanny for his friendly, intelligent nature. They also fear the rooster. Only Franzi, who is three years older and works in the tavern, appreciates, even loves, Schlaks. And even in a painter who didn’t come to stay, Martin finds an ally when, after a little girl is kidnapped by a sinister horseman, he sets out to become a hero to those who torment and despise him.
“Junge mit schwarz Hahn” by Stefanie vor Schulte tells the story of a tragic outsider who becomes a hero.
(Photo: Diogenes/oh)
One is caught up in this vividly drawn setting so quickly that one would not be surprised if the view out of the kitchen window fell on marauding mercenaries or superstitious market visitors. The descriptions apparently have the same effect on Wobken: “I was particularly impressed by the linguistic density of this debut work,” she says, “you literally have the feeling that she is painting the story!” And in case anyone is wondering where the debutante’s flair for suitable images came from: Stefanie vor Schulte studied stage and costume design.