Number 26 Berlin
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Five Dials Number 26 Berlin. London. And More. FeaturiNg JaN braNdt 13 Berlin Is Truly The Worst Peter Stamm 15 New Fiction Judith Schalansky 29 No More Children tilmaN rammStedt 52 I Like To Party; I Like, I Like To Party . Plus three essays on W.G. Sebald, Will Wiles’s gambling habits, Paul Maliszewski in Washington, short cuts through London, and the biggest palindrome you’ve seen, care of Demetri Martin. Plus more . Anthea bell is a freelance translator from laureNce howarth is a comedy writer who clemens J. Setz was born in 1982 and lives in German and French, specializing in modern and has worked extensively in radio and television. Graz, Austria. He is a novelist, short-story writer classic fiction. She has won a number of transla- He wrote the sitcoms Safety Catch and Rigor Mortis and translator, and has received numerous prizes tion awards in the UK and the USA. for BBC Radio 4 and has created four radio series for his work. He has been shortlisted twice for ross benjamiN is a prize-winning translator and toured the UK regularly with his double-act, the German Book Prize. of German-language literature. His translations Laurence and Gus. arabella SPeNcer studied German & Phi- include works by Friedrich Hölderlin, Joseph Pedro leNz is a Swiss slam poet, columnist and losophy at King’s College London and Literary Roth, Kevin Vennemann and Thomas Pletz- novelist. His novel The Goalie’s Me was originally Translation at UEA. She has lived in London, inger. He lives in Nyack, New York. written in Swiss dialect and has been translated Munich and Seville and has worked in the fashion tom biNgham is an illustrator currently based into Standard German. It invites comparison with and banking industries, and as a freelance transla- in the north of England. He graduated from the oral tradition in the work of Irvine Welsh and tor. Manchester Metropolitan University in 2010. Roddy Doyle. Sally-Ann SPeNcer is a literary translator from ulrich blumeNbach has translated authors Paul maliSzewSki is the author of the fiction German into English and lives in Wellington, including Arthur Miller, Stephen Fry and Will collection Prayer and Parable. His collection of New Zealand. Self into German. His translation of David Fos- essays, Fakers: Hoaxers, Con Artists, Counterfeiters, Peter Stamm was born in 1963 and now lives ter Wallace’s Infinite Jest won the Leipzig Book and Other Great Pretenders appeared in 2009. in Winterthur, Switzerland. His prize-winning Prize in 2010. SoPhia martiNeck, born 1981, is a Berlin- books have been translated into thirty-six lan- JaN braNdt was born in 1974 and has studied based illustrator, designer and comics artist. She guages. Seven Years was published by Granta in in Berlin, Cologne and London. His first novel, has worked for clients such as the New York Times 2012. Against the World, was shortlisted for the German and the Guardian. In June 2012 her first book SimoN urbaN studied German literature in Book Prize and will be published in English by Chicken, Porn, Brawls – Tales From A German Vil- Münster and creative writing at the prestigious Seagull books in 2014. lage was published by the Berlin-based publishing Deutsches Literaturinstitut in Leipzig. His short house Avant-Verlag. Based in Berlin since 1996, katy derbyShire is stories have won numerous prizes. His novel a London-born literary translator. She translates demetri martiN has appeared on The Daily Plan D will be published in English by Harvill various contemporary German and Swiss authors Show and was the lead in the 2009 Ang Lee Film Secker. and blogs about German-language literature at Taking Woodstock. His book, This Is A Book, was ShauN whiteSide is a former chair of the love german books. published in 2011. Translator’s Association and translates from Ger- Paul eweN is a New Zealander now living in Born in Derry in 1961, but resident in Scotland man, French, Italian and Dutch. London. He is the author of London Pub Reviews, since 1970, doNal mclaughliN is a freelance Juli zeh is a German writer based in Branden- "a cross between Bladerunner and Coronation translator from German and also writes fiction. burg. Her novels published in English include Street". He features as both an author and a translator in Eagles and Angels, Dark Matter and The Method. Best European Fiction 2012 (Dalkey Archive). SoPhie elmhirSt is a writer and editor at the Special guest editor and Germanic Liaison: New Statesman magazine. thomaS PletziNger is the author a novel, Anna kelly Funeral for a Dog, and a non-fiction book about michael hoFmann is a poet and translator of Editor: craig taylor basketball, Gentlemen, We Are Living on the Edge. numerous authors including Joseph Roth, Hans Funeral for a Dog was published in English by Publisher: SimoN Prosser Fallada, and Franz Kafka. W.W. Norton. Five Dials staffers:c hriS croissaNt, Noel iaiN galbraith is a widely published transla- marioN PoSchmann has written various col- o’regaN, marissa cheN, Sam buchaN- tor of German and Austrian poetry. lections of poetry and three novels. She has been wattS, Jamie Fewery, ellie Smith, marJaNa gaPoNeNko grew up in the Ukraine. awarded numerous prizes. caroliNe Pretty, Jakob voN baeyer and When she was fourteen she wrote a poem in Ger- emma eaSy tilmaN rammStedt is a prize-winning author man as an exercise to learn vocabulary. Since then of short stories and novels. He lives in Berlin. Thanks to: katy derbyShire, SharmaiNe she has since written numerous books of poetry lovegrove, NeryS hudSoN, charlotte ulrike almut SaNdig is a German writer of and two novels in German. rylaNd, eliSabeth Pyroth, gerhard short stories and poetry. She lives in Leipzig and Paul greeNleaF is an award winning fine-art auiNger, kathriN Scheel, Petra hardt, Berlin. photographer, a post-graduate of Central Saint Julia ketterer, doriS PlöSchberger, Martins College of Art & Design, currently Judith Schalansky is the author of An Atlas Judith habermaS, Anna ridley, molly working as part-time lecturer at the University of of Remote Islands. Her novel The Giraffe’s Neck will murray be published in English by Bloomsbury in 2014. East London. He continues to work on the series Designed by deaN alleN ‘Correspondence’ and has just published two new raoul Schrott is an Austrian poet, writer, Illustrations by SoPhia martiNeck artist books available from his website: paulgreen- literary critic and translator. This issue was made possible thanks to the leaf.co.uk uwe Schütte studied German and English generous support of the Goethe-Institut Lon- amaNda hoPkinsoN is Visiting Professor in literature at Munich University before doing his don and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Literary Translation at Manchester University MA and PhD in German literature with W.G. Education, the Arts and Culture. and City University, London. She translates from Sebald at UEA. He is now Reader at Aston Uni- Spanish, Portuguese and French and writes books versity in Birmingham. on Latin American and European photography. Contents 5 Our Town (Will Wiles on gambling; Sophie Elmhirst on short cuts) 9 A List (Demetri Martin’s palindromes) 10 Our Washington Correspondent (Paul Maliszewski on memorials) 12 Five Dials Bureaucracy (Please answer these questions about your reading life) 13 In Berlin (Brandt, Stamm, Lenz, Sandig, Blumenbach, Urban, Poschmann, Schalansky, Bell, Hopkinson, Schütte, Schrott, Zeh, Gaponenko, Pletzinger and Rammstedt – on many things, including Berlin) 54 The Back Section (Paul Ewen on food; Laurence Howarth at midnight) 60 Bonus Track (A short story by Clemens J. Setz) letterS From… dubbing her mother of one of the Our Glorious Readers openings. Zsuzsi is living off-line at the moment, so she won’t have seen and other sources the tweet. We will relay the news to her verbally. (Zsuzsi’s orphans will also ‘more bearS, please,’ writes Emmelia a recommendation and from the outset be excerpted in the January issue of Jackson of Calgary, Alberta, in response you’re like: Why are you even telling me Harper’s.) to our recent ‘B’ Issue. ‘Some magazines about Eat, Pray, Love? I’m all for sup- have yearly special issues. I think Five porting independent stores, but I need ‘i caN uSually print up Five Dials on a Dials should have a yearly bear issue, just some good recommendations next time work computer,’ writes Brad Hayden in to keep up with what’s happening in the I’m in one. Somebody tells a guy like New York, ‘but I used the colour printer world of bears.’ She was a fan, naturally, me to read Eat, Pray, Love and at first for the Cork issue and got busted, so of Amy Leach’s essay on pandas, as was I’m like the problem must be the god- thanks for that. The black and white Will Turner of London, who wrote: damn book store employee. But then I printer is about five feet away, so when I ‘Why would I ever in a million years care start thinking: what kind of signals am print up the issues I usually wander over about pandas? But it was a good essay in I sending out? What is it about me that right away and get them. Messing with that it was about pandas even though it makes people think Eat, Pray, Love?’ the colour printer wasn’t such a good was about more than pandas.’ He signed idea.’ off his email with: ‘Sorry, I’ve had a few. our FirSt short-story adoption initia- I’m typing this on my iPhone.’ tive has been going well. Contributor ‘hi dude,’ read the friendly piece of Zsuzsi Gartner has received postcards spam we received in mid-October from i’m gettiNg tired of bad book recom- from around the world offering up someone supposedly named Conrad Jef- mendations,’ writes Five Dials reader homes to her orphaned short-story feries.