Martin Chalmers Libri

Although in the second half of the 20th century a large number of exceptional writers emerged from the small Austrian Republic, Austrian writers have felt themselves excluded from literature's mainstream. This collection provides an opportunity to sample the rich variety of post-war Austrian writing. Contributors include Thomas Bernhard, Elfriede Jelinek, Ingeborg Bachman, Erich Fried and Lilian Faschinger. Martin Chalmers lives in London where he works as a German translator. The authors he has translated include Victor Klemperer, Robert Walser and Hubert Fichte.

Cleverly crafted, the collection features short stories that blend storytelling with literary documentation. Each piece, only a few pages long, explores diverse themes, from the virtues of the Devil to the complexities of love and power. Kluge's mastery of compression allows him to create vivid worlds in just a paragraph, akin to Kafka and Kawabata. The stories are organized into five chapters, addressing topics such as the cosmos and the conflict between knowledge and feelings, with precise details that provoke thought and reflection.