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The Years at the Zoo

Suhrkamp | Insel
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), Sweden (Ersatz)


The Years at the Zoo / Die Jahre im Zoo
A memoir in prose, poetry, and photography, stretching from the turn of the 20th century to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989
In this book full of stories, verse, and rare photographs, the poet Durs Grünbein presents himself in an autobiographical light. And yet he reaches further back to a time when the early contours of the twentieth century were just beginning to emerge.


During this period, Hellerau, a garden city on the outskirts of Dresden, is the epicentre of a life-reform programme that extends far beyond the limits of the suburb: it becomes a way-point for Kafka, Rilke, Benn, and...

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In this book full of stories, verse, and rare photographs, the poet Durs Grünbein presents himself in an autobiographical light. And yet he reaches further back to a time when the early contours of the twentieth century were just beginning to emerge.


During this period, Hellerau, a garden city on the outskirts of Dresden, is the epicentre of a life-reform programme that extends far beyond the limits of the suburb: it becomes a way-point for Kafka, Rilke, Benn, and many more. For Grünbein, Hellerau becomes a starting point, a site of formative power for his own life. From here, we proceed further into the century: the fates of his ancestors and the accounts of the trauma of Dresden’s destruction form narratives that penetrate deep into the sphere of his own experiences.
What emerges is the image of a childhood – at the edge of history in the long summers of the Cold War. Friendships and the early experience of loss, schoolboy memories and the first exposure to books, favourite toys and dreams of becoming a writer unfold in a colourful kaleidoscope of autobiographical prose, poetry, reflections and, last but not least, a treasure trove of photographs from the poet’s rich collection.

 

From the Book:

 

»From the top. And so here you are once again, just like before – !«

»[Grünbein] succeeds in creating wonderful miniatures that create and tell a short cultural history of East Germany beyond the memories and it is only natural that it then reaches far beyond the space and time of childhood. And so the kaleidoscope of a time and a world that have been lost comes forth from the nightmarish daze.« Roman Bucheli, NZZ

»a book of memories made of sparkling pieces of prose […] The pattern that Grünbein’s miniatures inscribe into our mind is of irresistible charm.« Stefan Kister, Stuttgarter Zeitung

»vivid, sensuous and with many unexpected turns […] allusive and crystalline prose« Helmut Böttiger, SWR2

»This is a completely wonderful book. One that is being carried to a great extent by its virtuosic language and the poetry of its texts, which includes the courage to be as exact and as sincere as possible. It has been written by one who knows himself and the circumstances he comes from – the familial as well as the historical ones, the private as well as the societal ones.« Andreas Montag, Mitteldeutsche Zeitung

»[Grünbein] succeeds in creating wonderful miniatures that create and tell a short cultural history of East Germany beyond the memories and it is only natural that it then reaches far beyond the space and time of childhood. And so the kaleidoscope of a time and a world that have been lost comes forth from the nightmarish daze.« Roman Bucheli, NZZ

»a book of memories made of sparkling pieces of prose […] The pattern that Grünbein’s miniatures inscribe into our mind is of...

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2015, 400 pages
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Persons

Durs Grünbein, born in Dresden in 1962, read theatre studies in Berlin, after which he worked as a freelancer writing for various literary magazines. He is one of the most important and internationally influential German poets and essayists and the recipient of numerous prestigious literary prizes. His debut volume of poetry published in 1988 was entitled Grauzone morgens and he went on to publish nearly twenty collections of poetry including Vom Schnee oder Descartes in Deutschland (2003), Der Misanthrop auf Capri (2005), Porzellan. Poem vom Untergang meiner Stadt (2005) and Zündkerzen (2017). He is also the author of a collection of essays and opera librettos. He has translated the tragedies of Aeschylus and Seneca into...

Durs Grünbein, born in Dresden in 1962, read theatre studies in Berlin, after which he worked as a freelancer writing for various literary...


OTHER PUBLICATIONS

The Comet
Year of Publication: 2023
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2023

»Now they were all mere playthings in the grasping arms of a state order such as had never existed before. An order that could only be destroyed from the outside by lightning and...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai People's Publishing House), Italy (Einaudi), Sweden (Ersatz)

Equidistance
Year of Publication: 2022
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2022
In his new volume of poetry, his twelfth, Durs Grünbein pursues his course of poetic-historical poetry through history and the present. This poet conceives of his wanderings through times and...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull)

For the Dying Calves
Year of Publication: 2020
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2020

In his four Lord Weidenfeld Lectures held in Oxford in 2019, poet Durs Grünbein deals with a topic that has occupied his mind ever since the moment he started to perceive his own position...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull)

From the Dream (Files)
Year of Publication: 2019
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2019

The title of a book of poetry could not be any more provocative, and still the poet allows no room for doubt: »In general, that which we call reality is greatly overestimated.«...

Rights sold to:

France (selection; 17 Muscles)

Spark Plugs
Year of Publication: 2017
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2017

Spark Plugs is a collection of 83 poems in diverse forms consisting of dream fragments, snippets of speech, prose poems, broken sonnets, and sequences that read like accident reports....

Rights sold to:

Italy (selection; Einaudi)

Cyrano or Returning from the Moon
Year of Publication: 2014
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2014

What is going on? The Americans are abandoning the moon, leaving the earth’s seemingly dead companion to stragglers. Time to recapitulate: On a Sunday afternoon in Berlin, on the airfield of the disused Tempelhof Airport, poet Durs Grünbein makes a momentuous observation.

What if humanity only ever wanted to return from its adventures in space exploration? Yesterday it was the...
Colossus in the Fog
Year of Publication: 2012
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2012

Durs Grünbein’s volumes of poetry are known for grasping their subjetcs in larger and larger circles, in their concentric sprawl they seem made for this age of globalisation. His new collection of poetry follows the outline of an exhibition. Works from the last five to eight years are presented in seven sections.


There are images of a journey, excursions into the unknown routine,...

The Vocation of Poetry
Year of Publication: 2010
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2010

Proceeding on the observation that poetics that create norms and set benchmarks no longer existed, Grünbein traces his poetic career as a »sketch of a personal psychopoetics«.


This...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Upper West Side Philosophers), Turkey (Ketebe)

The Bars of Atlantis
Year of Publication: 2009
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2009

The term »metaphor« derives from the Greek metà phérein (»to carry elsewhere«), which, in Antiquity, usually meant »by ship«, so that sea travel itself soon became a metaphor for poetry....

Rights sold to:

English world rights (FSG), Sweden (Ersatz), Albania (Aleph Klub)

Praise of the Typhoon
Year of Publication: 2008
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2008

Durs Grünbein visited Japan four times, in pursuit of a long elective affinity for the East that is also reflected in his works. During all of the four journeys he kept a travel journal in the...

Rights sold to:

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: France (Voix de Plumes)

The Cartesian Diver
Year of Publication: 2008
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2008
René Descartes’ most ambitious project was his expansive oeuvre Le Monde. His intention: to weave all the divided strands of knowledge into a fabric that is so dense that it allows you to...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Upper West Side Philosophers), Sweden (Ersatz)

Verses for the Day after Tomorrow
Year of Publication: 2007
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2007
Durs Grünbein’s new book of poetry is a work of memory and yet also a volume of transitions and transformations. In seven sections and with a variety of different verse forms, Grünbein’s range of...
Rights sold to:

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi)

Poem and Secret
Year of Publication: 2007
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2007

This volume contains 25 essays. It provides a chronological rip cut of Durs Grünbein‘s rich essay writing over the course of more than 15 years – from the early, much-quoted texts...

Rights sold to:

Italy (Einaudi)

Antique Dispositions
Year of Publication: 2005
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2005
Haunting portraits recorded from intriguing perspectives comprise the heart of these essays: not only Heiner Müller, Nietzsche, Goethe, Shakespeare, but also the bust of an unknown Roman. The author follows this physiognomical line to traverse the ages, through reportage, essays, stories, and character sketches.


Porcelain
Year of Publication: 2005
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2005
The night between the 13th and 14th of February, 1945 marked one of the most brutal and much discussed events of World War II; it was the night that Dresden, one of the most beautiful and culturally...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull)

The Misanthrope on Capri
Year of Publication: 2005
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2005

The Misanthrope on Capri (a reference to emperor Tiberius) gathers Durs Grünbein’s »histories«, printed in various publications and in his own volumes of poetry – poems that mainly deal...

Rights sold to:

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Poland (Slowo)

On Snow or Descartes in Germany
Year of Publication: 2003
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2003
On Snow or Descartes in Germany is many things: a picture puzzle; entertainment in verse form, homage to the coldest time of the year, and the theory of the refraction of light. A...
Rights sold to:

France (Greges), Italy (Einaudi), Sweden (Ersatz)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Greece (Keedros)

Why Live Without Writing
Year of Publication: 2003
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2003

In the nine essays and speeches collected in this volume, Durs Grünbein circles the prerequisites, conditions and consequences of writing.


»The intimate tries to assert itself through writing,« he says, »paradoxically by exposing itself publicly. But it soon becomes clear that the public is nothing by a particularly impervious protective layer.« Grünbein lets the reader partake in...

Declared Night
Year of Publication: 2002
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2002
Exploring the possibilities individuals have within the limits of their life-times and the confines of the big city as their living space – these have long since been themes that Grünbein...
Rights sold to:

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi), Hungary (Jelenkor)

The First Year
Year of Publication: 2001
Durs GrünbeinYear of Publication: 2001
Notes penned in the manner of ideas for future use between January 1 and December 31, 2000, these notes capture the historical moment, the start of the new millennium seen entirely through the...
Rights sold to:

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi)


DISCOVER

News
»For a rather long time now ... the name Durs Grünbein has been the answer to the question: Who’s the leading young poet in Germany?« James Fenton, Guardian
News
18.09.2020
We are pleased to announce that the Laureate of the Zbigniew Herbert Literary Award 2020 is Durs Grünbein.