„He tells stories in the vague hope that literature could prepare the world for a better life.” (Marcel Reich-Ranicki) On his 80th birthday Siegfried Lenz allows the reader a very personal insight into his work and his life. Part of the autobiographical stories and essays collected here have never been published in bookform. Lenz once explained how the collapse of the Third Reich had led him to the central problem of his works: “Then the mighty lost their power, the masters of violence forfeited their power, and since then this moment has preoccupied me again and again: in order to understand yourself, what happens to a human being, who “falls”, crashes, loses, I have written some stories, in which the moment of the “fall” is depicted. Writing is a good way of learning to understand people, actions and conflicts”.
About the author:
Siegfried Lenz was born in 1926 in the East Prussian town Lyck. Since 1951, starting with the novel "Es waren Habichte in der Luft" ("There were hawks in the air"), his works have been published by Hoffmann und Campe Verlag and have been awarded numerous prizes, including the Goethe prize of the city of Frankfurt and the Peace Award of the German book trade (Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels). His most recent publication is the novel "Fundbüro" ("Lost property office") (2003). |
