Glorious People

How can one be »glorious« in a country where corruption and oppression reign, where only those who submit to a restrictive regime survive? And how is one supposed to overcome this experience if it is not talked about, not even after the system has collapsed, not even after one has left the country and not even with one’s own daughter? »What do they see when they peer through the curtains into the courtyard of an East German town with their Soviet eyes?« Nina wonders when she thinks of her mother Tatjana and her friend Lena, who left Ukraine in the mid-nineties, got stranded in Jena and had to start all over again. Lena’s daughter Edi has long since stopped asking, she wants nothing to do with her origins. Until Lena’s fiftieth birthday brings four women together again and they have to realise that they all share a story.

Sasha Marianna Salzmann’s new novel talks about times of upheaval, from the »meat grinder time« of perestroika to present-day Germany, about how systems disintegrate and people are swept along by the maelstrom of events. It follows four biographies and explores the inextricable entanglement of the generations, across time and space. A novel of powerful imagery, great empathy and intensity.

»[Salzmann] writes in a broad, timelessly epic style. There is a quiet sovereignty here that gives one great hope that we are reading one of the next great German storytellers.« Marie Schmidt, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»Glorious People suggests you can feel as alienated in your country of birth as in your adopted homeland. … the book is an astute, deeply empathic portrayal of the dislocation of first-generation immigrants and intergenerational trauma.« Lucy Popescu, Financial Times

»The multi-perspectivity of the events does not result in a mere alternation of focus, but in overlapping perspectives, as if Salzmann were using a revolving stage to present the events. And the further the book progresses, the more this revolving stage seems to be picking up speed.« Andreas Platthaus, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»[Sasha Marianna] Salzmann tells this story in a way that is attentive to its protagonists and to the audience. As if they were drawing great social faith from the loneliness, the idiosyncrasy of writing.« Juliane Liebert, DIE ZEIT

»Sasha Salzmann has written a brilliant book ... [that] vibrates with the pleasure of narrating.« Rainer Moritz, Neue Zürcher Zeitung

»Sasha Marianna Salzmann’s novel, convincing in its intense and richly pictorial language, offers a different version of the narrative, a perspective beyond clichés and what has been read hundreds of times before.« Norma Schneider, neues deutschland

»Rarely has there been such a comprehensive and personal vivid description of how the end of the USSR continues to affect people to this day.« Irmtraud Gutschke, der Freitag

»The sensually concrete language, which does justice to the abundance of impressions and feelings at all times, is worthy of praise. Unconventional, allegorically charged images recur and make an impression ... Glorious People deserves to be on the longlist of the German Book Prize.« Wolfgang Schneider, Der Tagesspiegel

»Salzmann unravels the individual biographies. The perspective switches between the characters and generations, the reader’s empathy follows along; conflicts are intensified by the fact that we can understand all of them in the misfortune that has befallen them through no fault of their own and in their futile efforts to live a dignified life.« Ulrich Seidler, Berliner Zeitung

»An exciting look beyond our borders towards the East and back, by an award-winning author ...« Astrid Joosten, Brigitte Woman

»Above all, Glorious People is an impressive sensitive and unsparing examination of mentality.« Eugen El, Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung

»There is no more beautiful way to talk about the pain of what has been lost.« Maike Albath, Deutschlandfunk Kultur

»One of the most outstanding novels of contemporary German literature in my opinion – a must read!« Denis Scheck, SWR2 lesenswert Magazin

»Sasha Marianna Salzmann's strength is the scene, the dialogue, the telling detail, the historical accuracy, the sensual density, the surprising, apt linguistic image.« Carsten Hueck, Deutschlandfunk

»Glorious People is not only a sobering portrait of the late Soviet era, but also a remarkable family novel that draws on the experiences of loss made by strong female characters ... An award-worthy book.« Carsten Otte, SWR2