Pong redivivus
Pong lives! At the end of Sibylle Lewitscharoff’s novel Pong, the loveable, crazy protagonist had thrown himself with resounding hurrah to the moon, arms open wide – and contrary to the reader’s apprehensions, he has survived this bold leap from the roof. Now, as he lies in hospital, he has all the time in the world to devote to his thoughts, which mainly revolve around mysterious objects which...
Eloquence, humour and obstinacy: Sibylle Lewitscharoff’s Pong lives!
Pong lives! At the end of Sibylle Lewitscharoff’s novel Pong, the loveable, crazy protagonist had thrown himself with resounding hurrah to the moon, arms open wide – and contrary to the reader’s apprehensions, he has survived this bold leap from the roof. Now, as he lies in hospital, he has all the time in the world to devote to his thoughts, which mainly revolve around mysterious objects which he keeps safe at home.
Sibylle Lewitscharoff’s Pong, awarded the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in 1998, drew widespread attention from the literary public. With Pong redivivus, Sibylle Lewitscharoff and Friedrich Meckseper have jointly created a work of a magical kind, compelling both linguistically and visually.
»Sibylle Lewitscharoff writes in a delicate, beautiful language that keeps reinventing itself and that – especially where Herr Pong is concerned – goes back to Clemens von Brentano and even further than that, back to the eighteenth century, to its language invention turn and its intimacy gained from examining religion.« Thomas Steinfeld, Süddeutsche Zeitung
»In its statement, the Büchner Prize jury said that Lewitscharoff burst the boundaries of reality with ›imagination and inventiveness‹. There is no better way to put it.« Welf Grombacher, Nürnberger Zeitung
»Pong redivivus is a feast for the eyes and the mind of the highest order.« Cornelia Zetzsche, Bayerischer Rundfunk
»Sibylle Lewitscharoff writes in a delicate, beautiful language that keeps reinventing itself and that – especially where Herr Pong is concerned – goes back to Clemens von Brentano and even further than that, back to the eighteenth century, to its language invention turn and its intimacy gained from examining...
Persons
Sibylle Lewitscharoff
Friedrich Meckseper
Friedrich Meckseper was born in Bremen in 1936. He studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart and the Berlin University of the Arts. Aside from a vast corpus of engraving art and oil paintings, he has also produced numerous collages, montages and objects. He lives in Berlin.
Friedrich Meckseper was born in Bremen in 1936. He studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart and the Berlin University of the Arts....
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Pong at the Abyss
Things aren’t great with our flighty hero. Not even the clear night sky can entice him from his bed. The disappointment about the humiliation his »so-called friend« inflicted on him is too great.
Gloomy weeks skulk by until the phone rings one morning and a not entirely unlikable lady whom Pong has just met voices interest in the empty flat in his house. The background check comes...
From Above
Sibylle Lewitscharoff’s narrator is looking down onto his own grave, the bereaved friends and neighbours, onto the strange and the familiar in the city that is moaning under the oppressive heat...
Arabic world rights (Fawasel)
Abraham Meets Ibrahim
A highly dramatic scene: a father leans over the defenceless boy, the knife flashing in his hand – when, at the last moment, an angel orders him to sacrifice a ram instead of his own son. The...
Russia (Medina)
The Miracle of Pentecost
Renowned Dante scholars from all around the world meet in the ancient hall of Maltese at the Roman Aventine, within view of the St. Peter‘s Basilica. The center of interest is Dante’s Divine...
France (Piranha)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Audiobuch); German Entire Radio Reading (NDR)
Killmousky
France (Piranha), Italy (Del Vecchio)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Random House Audio)
Blumenberg
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Adriana Hidalgo), Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai Translation Publishing House), France (Les Belles Lettres), Italy (Del Vecchio Editore), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Slovenia (Sodobnost)
Apostoloff
Two sisters are travelling through present-day...
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Hidalgo), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Qingyan), Chinese complex rights (China Times Publishing), France (Piranha), Italy (Del Vecchio Editore), Hungary (Bookart), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Republic of Moldova / Romanian Rights (Cartier), Estonia (Atlex), Serbia (Presing Izdavastvo), Macedonia (Ars Lamina)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Book Club (Bertelsmann), German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag)