Granta magazine’s ‘Deutschland’ issue is an absolute treat for Germanophiles. Editor Thomas Meaney’s introduction considers the state of play in German literature since the Second World War, as well as Germany’s contemporary political landscape. He notes the pre-eminence of post-war German cinema in claiming the avant-garde artistic limelight, as well as the tendency for German-language literature from outside Germany – from Austria, Switzerland, and Romania – to offer a more thorough critical interrogation of post-war German culture and society than domestic literature. Meaney suggests that w ..read more

After a baptism of fire at my first Frankfurt Book Fair – Europe’s biggest trade fair for books – a few weeks previously, Vienna’s book fair-cum-literary festival, ‘Buch Wien’, from 8-12 November 2023, was a much cosier affair. True to Austrian form, the vibe was friendly and welcoming, with the entire book fair housed within a single hall at Vienna’s conference centre. Unlike Frankfurt, where visitors have to factor in the time needed to traverse multiple corridors and conference halls to ensure prompt attendance at events and meetings, none of the stands and stages in Vienna are more than a ..read more

Sheridan Marshall: Christine, can you start by telling us about how all the diverse elements of your career – as an author, literary agent, and translator – fit together? Christine Koschmieder: First of all, they don’t! And this is why I am in the process of quitting agenting. I started out studying theatre studies, and saw myself as belonging to this cultural landscape. Then I started to focus on post-Yugoslav nations, because I was so fed up of central European analysts – usually white men – explaining the Balkans. I wanted to hear from people from the original Yugoslav countries talking abo ..read more

I started learning German at school at the age of thirteen, and chose to study it at A-level because it seemed like most other people were taking French, and I wanted to do something different. Our A-level syllabus included a lot of German literature, and from that point I was hooked. Set texts by Bertolt Brecht and Heinrich Böll were the gateway into a rich literary world which I will always inhabit. I studied English Literature and German at UCL, followed by an MPhil in European Literature at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and a PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London, examining literary r ..read more