The novel focuses on group of teenagers during the fall of the Berlin Wall – we also get glimpses of their childhood pre unification. This post life consists of:

Meyers Erzählkunst ist nicht von der Hand zu weisen. Die Charaktere springen förmlich aus dem Buch und führen der Leserin ihre Erfahrungen vor Augen. Wir sind mit Daniel in den Kneipen unterwegs, mit Rico im Boxring, mit Fred im geklauten Auto und in Pitbulls Partykeller. Wir sind im Eastside, dem von den Freunden gegründeten Club in einer alten Fabrikhalle, wir sind im dunklen, verrammelten Kino und sprechen im Feuerzeugschein mit einem heroinsüchtigen Jugendlichen. Zig Szenen haben sich in mein Hirn gebrannt und brachten mir die Stimmung und die Gefühle dieser Jugend und die Dynamiken in der damaligen Gesellschaft unglaublich nahe. Der Autor Clemens Meyer wurde 1977 in Halle/Saale geboren, lebt jetzt aber in Leipzig. Dieser direkte Bezug vom Autor zu den Schauplätzen seines Romans versetzt ihn in die Lage, besonders authentisch von den damaligen Begebenheiten berichten zu können. Dieser Umstand spiegelt sich deutlich in seinem Werk wider, man wird regelrecht in die Handlung hineingezogen. There are two other areas where young men are traditionally involved. Danny and his father are supporters of Chemie Leipzig and, of course, football often means violence between fans and we see it in this book. Indeed, Danny’s father goes to prison for it. Although the novel is Clemens’ debut, it’s the fourth of his books that I’ve translated. I think the translation itself took about six to eight months, but because the book itself has been haunting me since it first came out in 2006, the process feels much longer – like the previous three translations were laying the ground for this one over the years. Guadalupe Nettel’s Still Born is translated from Spanish by Rosalind Harvey, and is about two women grappling with whether or not to have children.Mindestens ebenso außergewöhnlich wie die Sprache, ist auch der Ablauf der Geschichte, da die Handlung nicht chronologisch geordnet ist, sondern immmer wieder einzelne Erlebnisse aus Daniels Leben beschrieben werden.

A sharp and satirical take on the legacies of French colonial history and life in Paris today. Told in a fast-paced, and fluently translated, style of shifting perspectives, Standing Heavy carries us through the decades - from the youthful optimism of the decolonisation of the 1960s to the banal realities of daily shift work on the margins of contemporary consumer society - to deliver a fresh perspective on France that is critical, funny and human.

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If this is a portrait of post wall society, then Berlin must have made Caligula’s Rome seem like some kind of saint’s palace.

Amanda Svensson, who is the Swedish translator of Ali Smith’s novels, is longlisted for A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding, a family saga about triplets, translated by Nichola Smalley from Swedish. I dunno, Danny, it really is a bit soft. I must have set it wrong. Look, you can set the power here, it must have been way too low...’

Our narrator is Daniel Lenz (Dani in the (German version, Danny in the English one). Initially, during the GDR years, Danny seems to be a good Communist. He is a devoted member of the Pioneers, an East German youth organisation, and does well at school, He is seemingly well behaved and respected by his teachers. That is about to change. It took me six years. I had to find the right style for it – clear as glass but still poetic, rough but still romantic, fragmented but still epic – and then I had to compose all the episodes. For a long time, I was looking for the right form, for a way bring it all together, whether linear or non-linear… until one of my mentors told me: write a montage novel, like, among others, [John] Dos Passos. And I did. I wrote half of the novel with an old typewriter, but then I switched to a notebook, which made things easier, although typewriting did teach me a lot about the rhythm and precision of words and sentences. This year, Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel, took home the 2023 International Booker Prize. Gospodinov becomes the first Bulgarian author to win the award. Home » Germany » Clemens Meyer » Als wir träumten (While We Were Dreaming) Clemens Meyer: Als wir träumten (While We Were Dreaming)

While We Were Dreaming', written and published in German in 2007, recently translated beautifully into English by Katy Derbyshire, looks at the life of a group of young men from around twelve years old to early adulthood (eighteen/nineteen). A wide-ranging, thought-provoking, macabre and humorous novel about nationality, identity and ageing, and about the healing and destructive power of memory. It asks the question: what is our place in 20th century history, when that history seems to be constantly shifting? ‘Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be,’ they say, and this book shows us – in moving, funny and disturbing ways – how and why. To explore all the books on the longlist for the International Booker prize 2023 visit guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply. It’s an honour, and after all these years of writing, a wonderful recognition and appreciation that means a lot to me.

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So while not everything in the novel is necessarily a representation of a typical GDR childhood, it does reflect Meyer's own experience and the larger societal climate, as he explains: "I see myself as a child of this post-reunification period, the early 90s, when everything got mixed up, when I had the most formative experiences of my life. This is also described in 'While We Were Dreaming': a kind of dance on the rubble. My generation was entering puberty, we experienced a chaos of emotions anyway. And then there was this turning point, when gangs suddenly sprang up, there were street battles, drugs took over the market, and there were gangs of car thieves." Through literature we experience the fact that we are, at the end of the day, just human beings. We cry the same. We are moved by the same things. We are all afraid, we all fall in love and we have the same emotions. And this is the point of translation, that all over the world we can understand an emotion," Leïla Slimani, the chair of the judges, said in a statement when the longlist was announced. During the course of the book the German Democratic Republic ceases to exist and the Germany we now know comes into existence. You would barely know it from this book . Near the beginning (chronologically) but near the end (in the book) the boys inadvertently get caught up in a demonstration against the GDR. They only just manage to escape from the police thorough they are not really sympathetic towards the aims of the demonstration. References to the fall of the Berlin Wall and die Wende (i.e. reunification) are scant. Danny’s girlfriend leaves for the West with her parents. Mark’s parents get a microwave, something unheard of in the GDR. The police are a bit less brutal, However, on the whole, not much changes. They chose the longlist from 134 books published between 1 May 2022 and 30 April 2023 and submitted to the prize by publishers. There is so much great literature around the world. Discovering new worlds via literature is important, discovering the immortal power of storytelling is important, discovering the magic of other languages is important, so we should celebrate translated fiction, always.