You are cordially invited to attend a bi-lingual reading at the Goethe-Institut London. We are happy to offer complimentary tickets to members of the German Studies List. If you would like us to reserve comps for you, please send me an e-mail.
Barbara Honrath
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
MONDAY 7 OCTOBER 7pm
MICHAEL KUMPFMÜLLER WITH TIBOR FISCHER
This bi-lingual reading marks the publication of Anthea Bell's translation of Michael Kumpfmüller's novel The Adventures of a Bed Salesman (October 2002), "one of the most beautiful, funny and sad German books to have appeared in a long time." (Der Spiegel)
Bed salesman Heinrich Hampel is a loveable rogue who charms his way into the hearts, beds and purses of his female customers in Bavaria in the 1950s. But his flirtation with the market economy proves as fleeting as most of his amorous dalliances as he spends his own and his investors' money on his wife and his mistress. In 1962, with bankruptcy looming, Heinrich crosses the border to East Germany, aiming to shake off the past and to start again. However, his wheeler-dealing continues and Heinrich gets into more and more difficulties... A deliberate subversion of the German Bildungsroman, this highly successful book is blackly humorous and poignant by turn.
Michael Kumpfmüller was born in 1961 in Munich and now lives in Berlin. He is a freelance journalist for Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and Frankfurter Rundschau. The Adventures of a Bed Salesman is his first work of fiction.
Tibor Fischer (*1959) has published three novels including the Booker-shortlisted Under the Frog and, most recently, a dazzling collection of short fiction, Don't Read This Book if You're Stupid (2000). He has also edited, with Lawrence Norfolk, the eighth volume in the British Council's New Writing series, which aims to promote the best in contemporary English-language literature.
In association with Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Admission: £3
Venue: Goethe-Institut London, 50 Princes Gate, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2PH, tel 020 7596 4000
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