Edward T. Larkin
Translations
etlarkin@aol.com
SEPP MALL "A DOG CAME IN THE KITCHEN"
(EXCERPT FROM THE NOVEL EIN HUND KAM IN DIE KÜCHE, 2023)
WITH THOMAS AHRENS
forthcoming in Metamorphoses
Fall 2024
Sepp Mall’s most recent novel Ein Hund kam in die Küche (Leykam, 2023), from which this translation is excerpted, was ‘long-listed’ for the prestigious Deutscher Buchpreis for 2023. A well-known, South Tyrolean writer, Mall tells the heart-rending story of a father’s fateful decision to move his family (wife and two boys, aged 11 and 6) from their village, Mariendorf in South Tyrol, back into the German Reich in 1942, rather than experience expulsion to southern Italy. As they arrive in Innsbruck on the first stop of their sojourn, the authorities take notice of Hanno, the younger son, who suffers from an unspecified illness that impedes his mobility, intelligence, and most obviously his use of language. Hanno is taken to an institution allegedly for further examination. While the young narrator never explicitly states what really happened to Hanno – how could he as an eleven-year-old? – the reader of the novel strongly suspects that Hanno was subject to the brutal experimental medicine of the Nazis and likely a victim to their euthanasia program. Despite official news of his brother’s death from tuberculosis, the narrator so powerfully carries the memory of Hanno with him that the reader finds it difficult to deny that Hanno is a real character in the traumatic life of the narrator. Thus the “ghost” Hanno plays a central role in the translated section. In accordance with his pedagogical aim (my interpretation) to make readers, especially young readers, aware of their history and indeed aware of the current state of affairs in the world, Mall contextualizes his story with themes such as migration, German nationalism and ethnic nationality, racism, war enthusiasm, the inculcation of violence, the annexation/elimination of Austria, and trials of adolescence.
MICHAEL AMON, PANIC: A NOVEL
WITH THOMAS AHRENS
Kindle Direct Publishing
February, 2023
Panic: A Novel is a stream-of-consciousness account of the debilitating impact of a panic attack on an unsuspecting but narcissistic stockbroker in contemporary Vienna. The satirical novel calls into question whether he (and modern life) are really as “kerngesund” (perfectly healthy) as he maintains. The development of the anonymous character is framed by the lyrics of the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.” Each subchapter is introduced by a line of the song. The mysterious illness of this “man of wealth and taste” forces him to seek professional help, ultimately in the form of shock therapy administered by an ancient Nazi neurologist. Very funny! But apart from presenting a relatively realistic account of the symptoms and impact of a panic attack, Amon connects this stockbroker and his practices to the “devilish” work of the financial world: the market, which exists only in the stockbroker’s head, is, he admits, rigged to favor the investment banks, causing investors untold suffering. But the illness brought on by the panic attacks finally precipitates reflection, however haphazard, on Austria’s troubled past, on questions of theology, on death, even on the nature of capitalism. It appears that the panic attacks might only be a symptom. Something is wrong, but what? Could it be that the protagonist suffers from a lack of authenticity, which the reigning powers of society, of everyday life, cannot complete? Resigned and despondent, he is torn between “redemptive hope” and “a euphoric demise.” Amon’s hero develops a plan to redress the immorality (his own included) of everyday reality. He seeks redemption (and admittedly fame) as he plots to panic the stock market, thereby undoing the falseness, the inauthenticity, of modern life. But does he succeed? Or is he in the end one of “the beautiful losers” of Bob Seeger’s song? Can one develop some “sympathy for the devil” in this entrapped, devilish narcissist who is unable to move beyond an inauthentic existence?
GERTRUD LEUTENEGGER, "PANICKED SPRING"
(EXCERPT FROM PANISCHER FRÜHLING, 2014 )
WITH THOMAS AHRENS
Asymptote
July 2022
The acclaimed Swiss author, Gertrud Leutenegger, depicts in her novel Panischer Frühling the eruptive power of memory. Set on a splendid spring day during the volcanic eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull (April 2010), when all European air traffic came to a standstill, the heroine has a chance encounter with a young Englishman on London Bridge. His face partially disfigured, Jonathan is an enthusiastic teller of stories as he sells the newspaper of the homeless. In this beautifully written novel, they exchange life stories and begin to recognize the themes and secrets in each other’s life. Spring ends and the air traffic recommences, but the heroine continues her almost mystical quest for Jonathan and herself.
The excerpted passage introduces the reader to the themes that the novel follows upon the eruption of the volcano: the power of memory, an acknowledgment of temporariness of our lives, the importance of living a morally good life, the substantive concrete and metaphorical role that nature plays in human affairs, and our interconnectedness with historical events.
GERTRUD LEUTENEGGER, "DEATH ENTERS THE WORLD"
"DER TOD KOMMT IN DIE WELT" (1984)
WITH THOMAS AHRENS
Metamorphoses
Spring 2021
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"Death Enters the World" presents a narrator's outrage at the environmental and social destruction caused by the construction of a highway in the Swiss Alps.
ALFRED GOUBRAN, "THROUGH TIME IN MY ROOM"
(EXCERPT FROM DURCH DIE ZEIT IN MEINEM ZIMMER, 2014)
WITH THOMAS AHRENS
No Man's Land
Winter 2020, Issue 15
The opening passage of Alfred Goubran’s novel Durch die Zeit in meinem Zimmer recounts how young Elias, the son of well-off conventional parents, chooses to live a life without obligations, beyond social conventions, in his room, even as he feigns narrating about someone else. The desire for individuality and freedom takes him on nightly excursions to those who have refused to conform to society and those who have been ostracized. But these jaunts ultimately do not prove satisfactory. Left unspecified among various options is the question how he will become a self.
No Man's Land
Winter 2019, Issue 14
Michael Amon’s short novel Panikroman (2014) is a stream-of-consciousness account of the debilitating impact of a panic attack on an unsuspecting but narcissistic stockbroker in contemporary Vienna. Framed by the lyrics of the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” the satirical novel calls into question whether the hero (and modern life) are really as “kerngesund” (perfectly healthy) as he maintains.
Piscataqua Press, 2014
Mendoza - a conservative provincial town in Argentina at the foot of the Andes. April 8, 1977 - the last day that Gisela Tenenbaum was seen alive. How does a family come to terms with the fact that their twenty-two-year-old daughter disappeared so many years ago? Was she kidnapped, tortured, murdered? How have her friends and companions fared? Gisi is gone and yet still present.
Argentina's Angel tells the story of her family - Austrians of Jewish origin who fled to Argentina in 1939 -, of her committed struggle against injustice, and of her desperate, underground work for a cause that would ultimately be lost.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013
Searching for a suitable photo of her beloved for his obituary, a young woman reflects on her occasionally tense relationship with her songwriting partner and on the social, gender, and historical context in which it developed. Through music – whispered songs and more – she realizes that she has the wherewithal to move forward with her life.
Ariadne Press, 2010
In turn-of-the-century Vienna the impoverished tutor Stanislaus Demba must quickly find two hundred crowns to win back his girlfriend Sonja Hartmann. Satirizing all levels of Viennese society and intimating the social construction of identity, Leo Perutz presents a delightful account of Demba’s quest.
FRIEDRICH SCHILLER, "GAME OF FATE. A FRAGMENT OF A TRUE STORY"
Schiller's Literary Prose Works:
New Translations and Critical Essays
2008
A sophisticated psychological study, “Game of Fate” portrays Aloysius von G***, the son of a member of the middle class, who advances at the court of a prince by virtue of his passion and ambition. Indeed, a friendship develops between him and the prince. But an envious count takes advantage of Aloysius’ blinding self-importance; Aloysius fails to notice the trap that has been set for him. He is then denounced for his alleged disloyalty and imprisoned. On his release he is employed at a neighboring court, but then returns home and receives his old honors and duties. Nevertheless, his own subsequent pitiless behavior suggests that he has not changed.
Ariadne Press, 2005
The two stories contained in this edition reveal Erich Hackl's perspective on the relationship between historical reality and literary representation. Drawing on historical documents and authentic individuals, Hackl portrays the inspiring lives of those who have suffered the terror and injustice of twentieth-century fascism. Recovering from a wound sustained as a result of his involvement with the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, the Austrian Karl Sequens falls in love with a strong and scrupulous Spanish woman who cared for him in the hospital. The story of their brief but enduring love both for each other and for social justice is narrated through the memory of their daughter in "Love at first Sight: A Recollection." In his touching portrait of the fate of these non-fictional individuals, Erich Hackl illuminates an alternative perspective on Austria's position in the frenzied social and political configurations that mark Europe from the 1920s to the 1990s. In "History of a Promise," the mind of the septuagenarian protagonist retraces a path from his poverty in the Vienna of the First Republic through his internment in the concentration camps to his entrepreneurial success in his chosen South American exile as he reveals for the first time a promise that he had made.
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