Irmgard Keun was born in Berlin in 1905. She published her first novel, GilgioA Girl Just Like Us, in 1931. Her second novel, The Artificial Silk Girl, instantly became a bestseller. After the war, she resumed writing under the name of Charlotte Tralow, enjoying only modest success until her early works were rediscovered and reissued in the late 1970s. She died in 1982 in Cologne.
"A young girl navigates interwar German society and the
expectations-or lack thereof-placed upon women, in this poignant,
melancholy novel from the late Keun... [This] heartbreaking story
of dashed hopes is one that still has the power to affect and
inspire." -Publishers Weekly
"Damned by the Nazis, hailed by the feminists ... a truly charming
window into a young woman's life in the early 1930s" -Los
Angeles Times
"The Artificial Silk Girl follows Doris into the underbelly
of a city that had once seemed all glamour and promise ... Kathie
von Ankum's English translation will bring this masterwork to the
foreground once more, giving a new generation the chance to
discover Keun for themselves." -Elle.com
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