Chasing the King of Hearts
Hanna Krall
OUT SEPTEMBER 2013 (for Peirene subscribers: August 2013)
An extraordinary love story, spanning 60 years, from 1939 to 2000, from the Warsaw Ghetto to Israel.
'This is the last leg of my journey. It would be silly to lose my mind now.' After the deportation of her husband to Auschwitz, Izolda Regenberg, alias Maria Pawlicka, has only one aim: to free her husband. Her race to beat fate might appear absurd to others, but not to her. In times of war and destruction she learns to trust herself.
'With her laconic style, Krall creates a lightness that holds the horror and ... amazes the reader.' FAZ
'An outstanding writer... who realizes that every individual fate transcends the possibilities of literature... and that every fate needs to be told.' Gazeta Wyborcza
Translated from the Polish by Philip Boehm.
Series of The Turning Point
176pp, paperback with flaps, £12.00
Published September 2013
ISBN 978-1-908670-10-6
ebook: 978-1-908670-13-7
Mr Darwin's Gardener
Kristina Carlson
OUT JUNE 2013 (for Peirene subscribers: May 2013)
A postmodern Victorian novel about faith, knowledge and our inner needs.
The late 1870s, the Kentish village of Downe. The villagers gather in church one rainy Sunday. Only Thomas Davies stays away. The eccentric loner, father of two and a grief-stricken widower, works as a gardener for the notorious naturalist, Charles Darwin. He shuns religion. But now Thomas needs answers. What should he believe in? And why should he continue to live?
'The collective consciousness in this novel is an amazing choir: Carlson makes the souls of Downe Parish sing.' Helsingin Sanomat
'Carlson writes beautifully, wisely and with effortless humour.' Suomen Kuvalehti
Translated from the Finnish by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah.
Series of The Turning Point
112pp, paperback with flaps, £12.00
Published June 2013
ISBN 978-1-908670-09-0
ebook: 978-1-908670-12-0
The Mussel Feast
Birgit Vanderbeke
OUT NOW
The modern German classic that has shaped an entire generation.
A mother and her two teenage children sit at the dinner table. In the middle stands a large pot of cooked mussels. Why has the father not returned home? As the evening wears on, we glimpse the issues that are tearing this family apart.
'I wrote this book in August 1989, just before the Fall of the Berlin Wall. I wanted to understand how revolutions start. It seemed logical to use the figure of a tyrannical father and turn the story into a German family saga.' Birgit Vanderbeke
'We are playing catch-up here with something of a contemporary European classic.' David Mills, The Sunday Times
'The message in this amusing, crafty volume of literary agitprop is change! Rise up! Rebel! Oh yes, and avoid slimy mussels.' Val Hennessy, Daily Mail
Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch.
Series of The Turning Point
112pp, paperback with flaps, £10.00
Published February 2013
ISBN 978-1-908670-08-3
ebook: 978-1-908670-11-3