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USA (New Directions), Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai Lucidabooks), Serbia (Fabrika), Greece (Kritiki)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (RBA), Russia (Progress), France (Laffont), Netherlands (Thoth), Norway (Bokvennen), Finland (Kirjayhtymä Oy), Czech Republic (Academia), Slovenia (PAN), Israel (Carmel)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (DAV)
Pigeons on the Grass / Werke in 16 Bänden
Novel
»Koeppen's work consists, as does that of all writers, of books of varied degrees of importance. I myself appreciate the early novel A Sad Affair, Death In Rome and the fragment Youth in particular. But I regard the fantastic novel Pigeons on the Grass, published in 1951, as the most important book in Koeppen's oeuvre, too little known now as it was then. Those who haven't read this novel cannot claim to know German literature after 1945.« Marcel...
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»Koeppen's work consists, as does that of all writers, of books of varied degrees of importance. I myself appreciate the early novel A Sad Affair, Death In Rome and the fragment Youth in particular. But I regard the fantastic novel Pigeons on the Grass, published in 1951, as the most important book in Koeppen's oeuvre, too little known now as it was then. Those who haven't read this novel cannot claim to know German literature after 1945.« Marcel Reich-Ranicki
In 1951, Wolfgang Koeppen accomplished a first critical inventory of the social and political conditions that were under restoration in Germany with his novel Pigeons on the Grass. His sketches of figures and events of a single day in the Munich of 1949, which is described as an impenetrable »pandemonium«, appear in front of our eyes as if observed through a kaleidoscope.
»Koeppen’s voice – cold, defiant and relentless in its fury at the deadly amnesia he saw emerge from Germany’s ruins after World War II – neither transforms nor imbues the world around him, but rather indicts it.« The New York Times
»Scathing, disillusioned novel ridiculing the notion of a new start and a clean slate for West Germany. Pigeons on the Grass is set in Munich on a single day and its 105 short fragments reveal the failure of more than thirty characters to face up to reality.« London Review of Books
»In a many-toned language Koeppen not only depicts a cacophonous world but peoples that world with individuals whose lives barely overlap. The result documents a uniquely German situation; it also, with its echoes of James Joyce and John Dos Passos, reconnects the German novel at a surprisingly early date to modernist fiction.« The Independent
»Germany’s greatest living writer.« Günter Grass
»A modernist tour of Munich over the course of one eventful day in 1948. The novel’s roving consciousness deliberately blurs the boundaries between the characters’ minds, turning Munich into one large, pulsing brain – exhilarating and original.« Andrew Martin, Harper’s Magazine
»Scathingly beautiful – lyrically inescapable.« Nadine Gordimer
»a forgotten masterpiece.« The Evening Standard
»Almost eerily contemporary in its concerns, and remarkable as a sidelong, searing appraisal of the legacy of the Nazi years, it is a recovered masterpiece.« Publishers Weekly
»A kaleidoscopic narrative that follows a disparate cast of characters whose lives accidentally intersect during a single day in Munich, Germany, in 1948. [...] this portrait of despair and endurance amid postwar ruin is nothing less than a miniature masterpiece.« Kirkus
»Koeppen’s masterwork soars.« Publishers Weekly
»Koeppen’s voice – cold, defiant and relentless in its fury at the deadly amnesia he saw emerge from Germany’s ruins after World War II – neither transforms nor imbues the world around him, but rather indicts it.« The New York Times
»Scathing, disillusioned novel ridiculing the notion of a new start and a clean slate for West Germany. Pigeons on the Grass is set in Munich on a single day and its 105 short fragments reveal the failure of more than thirty...
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1951, 268 pages
Persons
Wolfgang Koeppen
Author
Wolfgang Koeppen was born on June 23, 1906 in Greifswald and died on March 15, 1996 in Munich. After spending eleven years in Ortelsburg (East Prussia), he returned to Greifswald in 1919. Due to financial reasons he had to leave grammar school and change to a lower secondary school, which he left without obtaining a diploma. After that, he dabbled in many different professions: he worked in a bookshop and at Greifswald's city theatre. As a commis chef he went to Sweden and Finland; in Würzburg he worked as a dramaturge. In 1927 he settled down in Berlin, where he began to work as an editor at the Berliner Börsen-Courier in 1931. He stayed there for two years. He wrote reportages, for the feuilleton, and started on his first literary works. His first novel,...
Wolfgang Koeppen
Author
Wolfgang Koeppen was born on June 23, 1906 in Greifswald and died on March 15, 1996 in Munich. After spending eleven years in Ortelsburg (East...
© Isolde Ohlbaum
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Latest first
Year of Publication: 2024
Wolfgang KoeppenYear of Publication: 2024
Novel Fragments
Wolfgang Koeppen’s novel fragments were produced over a period of almost sixty years. Though the author enjoyed phases of increased productivity, such as between 1951 and 1954, when his novels Pigeons on the Grass, The Hothouse and Death in Rome were released, he regularly found himself unable to realise his literary plans. Wolfgang Koeppen was without a doubt an author...
Year of Publication: 2021
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2021
Better Than Ever
To be like Erik just once! That’s what Andreas has always wanted, and that’s why he has been trying to make friends with Erik – always polite, enviably relaxed, but ultimately unapproachable –...
Rights sold to:
France (Gallimard)
Year of Publication: 2018
Wolfgang KoeppenYear of Publication: 2018
Feuilletons
Wolfgang Koeppen once stated that no bibliography could ever exist that drew up a comprehensive list of all the newspaper contributions issuing from his pen. Jörg Döring has refuted this pessimism with this volume of the Complete Works. The complete overview of the feuilleton pieces is the result of a meticulous autopsy of almost every publication mouthpiece where Koeppen had the opportunity...
Year of Publication: 2016
Wolfgang KoeppenYear of Publication: 2016
Youth
Youth, published in 1976, is the only longer prose work that Wolfgang Koeppen completed after refraining from the genre for almost twenty years. Youth is composed of a...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Dalkey Archive), France (Hachette)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Russia (Progress), Netherlands (Querido), Japan (Dogakusha), Poland (Czytelnik), Czech Republic (Odeon), Bulgaria (Narodna Kultura)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag)
Year of Publication: 2016
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2016
Daybreak
Daybreak leads into the centre of Hans-Ulrich Treichel’s writings, up and close to the pain points of loss and forlornness. This is the powerful, doleful story of a woman who...
Rights sold to:
France (Gallimard)
Year of Publication: 2014
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2014
Early Disturbance
Hans-Ulrich Treichel tells the story of Franz, whose life is weighed down by his pathological attachment to his mother. Mother, mother: he simply cannot shake that constant buzzing in his head. Not on his therapist’s couch, not in Berlin, his childhood home, not while travelling, not in his relationship with Andrea.
Early Disturbance is the story of a...
Year of Publication: 2010
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2010
Grunewaldsee
On an olive-strewn seaside property in Spain and the dog urine-steeped beaches of the Grunewaldsee, bestselling author Hans-Ulrich Treichel weaves his two characters into a love story. It is...
Rights sold to:
France (Gallimard)
Year of Publication: 2008
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2008
Anatolin
In search of his own memories, the hero of this cheerful-melancholy novel realizes that an »autobiographical evacuation« has taken place. His lost brother dominates his childhood,...
Rights sold to:
France (Gallimard), Poland (Czytelnik)
Year of Publication: 2007
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2007
The Pope I knew
»I could also say that I speak English as well as I play the piano. And I do play the piano very well. Enviably well. English has always been my first foreign language and Italian only my third. So you can figure out how well I play the piano when I tell you that the Italian that I speak better than quite a number of Italians is only my third foreign language.«
Of course he knew Pope John...
Of course he knew Pope John...
Year of Publication: 2005
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2005
A Man's Flight
Not every wish has to come true. Even an academic can be happy. For a time, at least. But shortly before his 52th birthday, Stephan begins to be haunted by unusual fears and dreams and besides there...
Rights sold to:
France (Gallimard)
Year of Publication: 2002
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2002
Earthly Amor
When Albert meets the beautiful Elena he falls head over heels in love. Is she the woman he wishes to share his life with, the woman he has always sought, and will she, after he has hesitated...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Pantheon), Chinese simplex rights (People’s Literature Publishing House), Russia (AST), France (Hachette), Italy (Neri Pozza), Netherlands (Ambo|Anthos), Denmark (Lindhardt & Ringhof), Norway (Pax), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Turkey (Iletisim)
Year of Publication: 2000
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2000
Tristanakkord
Rights sold to:
Denmark (Lindhardt & Ringhof)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Galaxia Gutenberg), Russia (Limbus), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia das Letras), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Ambo|Anthos), Sweden (Wahlström & Widstrand), Norway (Pax), Poland (Czytelnik), Lithuania (Alma Littera)
Year of Publication: 1998
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 1998
Lost
»Not since The Reader has a work of fiction so stunningly evoked the guilt and shame that resounds in postwar Germany. In this debut novel of astonishing originality, we bear witness to a...
Rights sold to:
USA (Pantheon), Denmark (Lindhardt & Ringhof), Lithuania (Sofoklis), Slovenia (Družina)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: UK (Picador), Spanish world rights (Galaxia Gutenberg), Catalan rights (Enciclopedia Catalana), Chinese complex rights (Eurasian Publ. Group), Russia (AST), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia das Letras), France (Hachette), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Ambo|Anthos), Sweden (Wahlström & Widstrand), Norway (Pax), Finland (Söderström), Iceland (Mal og menning), Korea (Chaeksesang), Thailand (schau-Thai), Poland (Czytelnik), Slovakia (Slovart), Hungary (Europa), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Croatia (Croatian Philological Ass.), Turkey (Ayrinti), Greece (Periplous), Albania (K&B), Ukraine (Tandem), Israel (Achuzat Bayit)
Year of Publication: 1954
Wolfgang KoeppenYear of Publication: 1954
Death In Rome
In 1954, Wolfgang Koeppen published Death In Rome, the conclusion of a series of novels that are regarded today as the critical inventory of the early years of the German Federal...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Granta / Penguin), Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai Lucidabooks), France (Typhon), Netherlands (Cossee), Turkey (Kültür Yayinlari Iş), Greece (Kritiki), Macedonia (Ad Verbum)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (RBA), Catalan rights (La Magrana), Russia (Progress), Italy (Zandonai), Norway (Bokvennen), Poland (PIW), Czech Republic (Academia), Slovakia (Slovensky Spisovatel), Hungary (Europa), Bulgaria (Narodna Kultura), Latvia (Liesma), Slovenia (Mladinska Knijga)
Year of Publication: 1953
Wolfgang KoeppenYear of Publication: 1953
The Hothouse
Bonn, March 1953: the days of the debates on re-militarization and Germany's accession to the European Defense Community become a fiasco for Keetenheuve, a member of parliament for the Social...
Rights sold to:
Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai Lucidabooks)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (W.W.Norton; UK sublicense: Granta), Spanish world rights (RBA), Russia (Progress), Netherlands (Thoth), Finland (Kirjaythymä), Poland (PIW), Czech Republic (Academia), Slovakia (Slovensky Spisovatel), Hungary (Europa), Latvia (Liesma)
Year of Publication: 1934
Wolfgang KoeppenYear of Publication: 1934
A Sad Affair
A romantic roman à clef that tells the story of Sibylle, one of the greatest literary femmes fatales since Salomé.
A romance that anticipated Beat...
Rights sold to:
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (W.W. Norton), France (Albin Michel), Norway (Bokvennen), Finland (Karisto)
DISCOVER
News
25th Anniversary of the Death of Wolfgang Koeppen on March 15, 2021
Author Wolfgang Koeppen died on March 15, 1996 in Munich.Just published
Just published: Suhrkamp Authors Around the World – November 2020
We are delighted to present to you our latest arrivals!Just published