In English for the first time, a biting satirical novel about an untalented, self-delusioned celebrity who seduces all of Weimar Berlin.
Gabriele Tergit (1894-1982) was a novelist and journalist, known
initially for her courtroom reporting. After gaining fame for her
novel K sebier Takes Berlin, her writing career was cut off short
when the SS threatened her safety in 1933. She immediately fled to
Czechoslovakia, then Palestine, and finally London. After the war,
her work was largely forgotten by the public, but she continued to
work on behalf of other authors as the honorary secretary of the
London PEN Center of expatriate German-speaking authors.
Sophie Duvernoy has translated work by Sibylle Berg, Sabine
Rennefanz, and Zora del Buono, and has written for the Los Angeles
Review of Books, Thomson Reuters, and other publications. She is
the winner of the 2015 Gutekunst Prize for young translators and is
currently pursuing a PhD at Yale University.
"Portraying a society declining into fascism, the novel resounds
with hollow laughter and is crisp throughout, but the journalistic
sections feel most alive. These tableaus, which blend absurdism and
poignancy, match the comic invention of classics like Michael
Frayn’s Towards the End of the Morning and Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop.”
—Publishers Weekly
“In a pace that’s intensely frenetic, Tergit captures the pulse of
the period brilliantly in her prose – light and airy, comic and
satirical, but also dark and profound...Käsebier Takes Berlin is an
excellent novel well worth reading.” —Radhika’s Readers Retreat
"A star is born, Weimar-style, in this German novel originally
published in 1931....Tergit's novel deserves a place alongside
Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz, Canetti's Auto-da-Fé, and other key
works of the period." —Kirkus
"Tergit's prose is energetically rendered by Sophie Duvernoy. .
.Tergit's gift for engaging dialogue enlivens the novel. But
beneath the witty comedy and acute observation lies a sober
reminder of the dangers brewing: references to mounting debt and
widespread bankruptcy; and as the election posters go up, auctions
are held and suitcases of the vulnerable stand ready." —Rebecca K.
Morrison, TLS
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