Two forthcoming titles from Scribe have been awarded PEN Translates grants: Kruso by Lutz Seiler, translated by Tess Lewis, and The Winterlings by Cristina Sánchez-Andrade, translated by Samuel Rutter.
Kruso is the debut novel of one of Germany’s greatest living poets. Inspired in part by Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, it tells the story of the breakdown of the German Democratic Republic through the eyes of Ed, a young literature student who comes to the Baltic island of Hiddensee in the aftermath of his girlfriend’s death and becomes entangled with Kruso, a charismatic Russian who is helping East Germans escape via the island to West Germany. It has sold 120,000 copies in Germany, received rave reviews, and won multiple prizes, including the German Book Prize.
The Winterlings is widely regarded as the breakthrough work of Cristina Sánchez-Andrade, who is the author of over a dozen novels and short story collections, and an accomplished translator. Set in Terra Chá, a remote area of Galicia, the narrative follows two sisters, Saladine and Dolores, from the last days of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 through to the early 1950s when the film Pandora and the Flying Dutchman starring Ava Gardner and James Mason was filmed on the Mediterranean coast in Cataluña. It was shortlisted for the prestigious Herralde Prize (past winners include Javier Marías and Roberto Bolaño).
For more information about PEN Translates, visit the English PEN website.