The Long Summer

There are stories that sink unnoticed, undercover as it were, deep into our memory; there are those whose radiance strikes us like a lightning bolt: there is an encounter with a snake at an intersection during this endless »long summer«. A child learns to read and sees his dog transformed into a pathetic bundle of letters. Johann Sebastian Bach’s eye sockets become a topic of conversation among Leipzig parishioners. Marlene Dietrich’s estate turns out to be surprisingly strange. And a daughter is just as fascinated by snow angels as she is by her father, who cuts an orange into wedges as though he was performing a magic trick.

In her prose pieces, Gisela von Wysocki tells enchanting stories and breathes new life into biographical events. She sets a stage for them: found objects, unexpected twists and events emerge and become a stirring present. Because: »All of this lives, has its reality, reaches out to us who are searching for words.«

»A Chaplinesque streak characterises the texts, a way of moving forward that is a retreat at the same time. ... Floating between abstraction and sensuality, [the texts] are scenically very precise. […] one recognises in Wysocki’s art of reduction the silhouettes of Kafka, Beckett or Robert Walser.« Meike Fessmann, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»The idea that poetic language can produce knowledge – and thus be superior to ostensibly purely factual discussions of its subject – is downright scary to many. Yet this is exactly what she proves, once again, in this book.« Rose-Maria Gropp, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»… an cleverly rampant composition of memory fragments that come together to form the symphony of a rich artist’s life.« Iris Radisch, Die Zeit

»Her new collection of prose pushes the linearity of narration and turns the depiction of childhood into a luminous mosaic of 49 short prose texts of various kinds, which sometimes present themselves as sketches, other times as dream scenes and micro-narratives, as portraits or philosophical notions.« Michael Braun, Der Tagesspiegel

»Von Wysocki writes with virtuosity and delicateness, one would like to linger forever in some of the sentences, moments and stories.« Kathrin Witter, Welt am Sonntag

»An enchanting declaration of love for cinema and music. In finely honed prose miniatures, Gisela von Wysocki recalls key scenes of her life.« Michael Braun, Deutschlandfunk Kultur

»Gisela von Wysocki‘s language creates an immense pull. She combines a passion for art with delicate elegance.« Björn Hayer, WDR5