Stories that fluctuate between dream and reality “It’s incredible what the sea throws up and scatters around and what it offers to your powers of imagination.” Siegfried Lenz Mussels are stuck to a piece of hawser thrown up onto the shore by the waves. Did it snap off in a storm? A work glove full of holes – does it tell of a harsh male existence on an oilrig? And did the shards of glass from a bottle perhaps hold a written message? What do starfish whisper about? Liselotte Lenz has focused on unremarkable things with her pen and brush and Siegfried Lenz has dreamt up and written down some mysterious, probable and unexpected stories about flotsam and jetsam.
About the author:
Siegfried Lenz, born in Lyck in East Prussia in 1926, is one of the most important and widely-read writers in post-war and present-day literature. His works have been published since 1951 (Es waren Habichte in der Luft - There were Hawks in the Air) by Hoffmann und Campe and has won numerous prizes, including the Goethe Prize from the city of Frankfurt-am-Main, the German Booksellers’ Peace Prize and the Lew-Kopelew Prize for Peace and Human Rghts 2009. Beside numerous novels and volumes of stories and essays, cadeau has published the stories Kummer mit jütländischen Kaffeetafeln (Trouble with Jutland coffee tables) and Der Ostertisch (The Easter Party) in high quality illustrated editions.
Lieselotte Lenz, a painter and illustrator, was married to Siegfried Lenz for more than 50 years and was his advisor and first reader. She made her drawings when they were staying in their house by the sea. She died in Hamburg in 2006. |
