As promised here is the second giveaway of German Literature Month. While the first one was focussing on novellas and literary books, this one combines literary books and genre. Alissa Walser’s novel is clearly historical, it still is a literary novel, the same goes for Léon and Louise and Love Virtually, both are love stories but not pure genre. Things are different when it comes to Andrea Maria Schenkel. Hers is a crime novel, no doubt. One of the most interesting new German genre writers is Zoran Drvenkar who writes a lot of different genres. Thriller, YA, children’s books and many more. The book I’ve chosen is a genre blend which is extremely successful in Germany among adults and young adults alike.
I’d like to thank Haus Publishing for offering Léon and Louise and MacLehose Press for Alissa Walser’s novel Mesmerized. Lizzy is offering Love Virtually and Grimm’s Fairy Tales and I’m contributing The Murder Farm and Tell Me What You See.
I hope the blurbs will help you decide which of the books you would like to win.
Love Story
Alex Capus – Léon and Louise
Summer 1918. The First World War is drawing to a close when Léon Le Gall, a French teenager from Cherbourg who has dropped out of school and left home, first meets and falls in love with Louise Janvier. Severely wounded by a German artillery attack they are separated, both mistakenly believing each other to be dead. Ten years later, while travelling on the Paris Métro, Léon – now married – briefly catches sight of a girl who bears a strong resemblance to Louise, the first love he has never forgotten. He goes in search of her at the insistence of his wife Yvonne. The couple are briefly reunited, but part again with a heavy heart as Louise refuses to destroy Léon’s marriage. And then another war tears them apart. Paris is occupied by the Germans, for whom Léon indirectly works at the headquarters of the Paris CID. Louise, an employee of the Banque de France, is shipped off to French West Africa with the bank’s gold reserves. Narrated by Léon’s grandson, Léon and Louise is the story of an enduring passion that survives the vicissitudes of world history and the passage of time, spanning more than forty years. But it is far more than this. The long-separated lovers are flesh and blood characters vividly captured in complex human relationships and real-life situations: in German-occupied Paris, where Léon wages a lone battle against the abhorrent tasks imposed on him by the SS and his wife fights stubbornly for her family’s survival; and in the wilds of Africa, where Louise confronts the hardships of her primitive environment with courage and humour.
Daniel Glattauer – Love Virtually
It begins by chance: Leo receives emails in error from an unknown woman called Emmi. Being polite he replies, and Emmi writes back. A few brief exchanges are all it takes to spark a mutual interest in each other, and soon Emmi and Leo are sharing their innermost secrets and longings. The erotic tension simmers, and it seems only a matter of time before they will meet in person. But they keep putting off the moment – the prospect both unsettles and excites them. And, after all, Emmi is happily married. Will their feelings for each other survive the test of a real-life encounter?
Historical
Alissa Walser – Mesmerized
Mozart’s Vienna. A crucible for scientific experimentation and courtly intrigue, as Europe’s finest minds vie for imperial favour. In a colourful, chaotic private hospital that echoes with the shrieks of hysterical patients, Franz Anton Mesmer is developing a series of controversial cure-alls for body and mind. When he is asked to help restore the sight of a blind musical prodigy favoured by the Empress herself, he senses that fame, and even immortality, is within his grasp. Mesmer knows that he will have to gain her trust if he is to open her eyes. But at what cost to her fragile talent? And will their intimacy result in scandal?
Crime
Andrea Maria Schenkel – The Murder Farm
A whole family has been murdered with a pickaxe. They were old Danner the farmer, an overbearing patriarch, his put-upon devoutly religious wife, and their daughter Barbara Spangler, whose husband Vincenz left her after fathering her daughter, Marianne. Also murdered was the Danners’ new maidservant, Marie, who was regarded as slightly simple. Despite the brutal nature of the killings and the small village where it has taken place, the police have no leads. Officially the crime is unsolved. And then a former resident returns home… The Murder Farm is an unconventional detective story. The author interweaves testament from the villagers, an oblique view of the murderer, occasional third-person narrative pieces and passages of pious devotion. The narrator leaves the village unaware of the truth, only the reader is able to reach the shattering conclusion.
Fairy Tales
The Brothers Grimm – Fairy Tales
Is a collection of well-loved fairytales by the brothers Grimm. Stories include Hansel and Gretel, Tom Thumb, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White, the Frog Prince, Rapunzel, The Elves and The Show Maker and many more.
YA/Horror/Ghost story
Zoran Drvenkar – Tell Me What You See
Berlin. The dead of night. Sixteen-year-old Alissa and her best friend Evelin make their secret Christmas pilgrimage to Alissa’s father’s grave. In the graveyard, Alissa falls through thick snow into an underground crypt. Searching for a way out, she discovers something else: out of the lid of a small coffin coils a strange black plant. Drawn closer, Alissa sees its roots embedded in a young child’s heart. This chance encounter sets off a chain of nightmarish events that throw her life into turmoil. Haunted by angels, stalked by her ex-boyfriend, only with Evelin’s help can Alissa reclaim her sanity and discover the truth about her frightening new gift.
The competition is open internationally. The winners will be announced on Wednesday October 10 2012.
Beauty is a Sleeping Cat 
Thanks for hosting this giveaway, Caroline! Please consider me for Zoran Drvenkar’s ‘Tell Me What You See’ and Andrea Maria Schenkel’s ‘The Murder Farm’. I read ‘Love Virtually’ when it came out and I loved it. Nice to see it here. I also read Grimm’s Fairytales early this year and they were wonderful. I can’t wait for November to start!
I thought you’d be interested by Drvenkar. 🙂 I’ve read The Murder Farm when it came out and it’s very good.
Ha, ha, ha! I love YA books, Caroline 🙂 Drvenkar’s book has a wonderful plot too! His name is a tongue twister though! How do we pronounce his name?
Now that is a difficult question. I don’t even know how we would pronounce it in German. He is obviously of Croatian origin (born in Croatia in 1967). I would pronounce it Dvenkar – without the r which is probably accurate.
Here’s an interview in English – at the bottom of the page.
http://www.drvenkar.de/autor/interviews/index.html#Interview_For_French
What a wonderful range of books. I’d like to be considered for Leon and Louise please
Caroline:
Commenting here but don’t add me to the giveaway as I have such a huge backlog. I have some picks for next month and am looking forward to it.
Great. I’m looking forward to see what you’ve read.
I already bought some of your suggestions.
I hope you will like them.
Yes, we tried to add a bit of variety. I’ve heard only good things abot Leon and Louise.
The Murder Farm for me.
Thanks.
It’s a good one.
Hi
just the horrorbook by Dvrenkar, pleae….horror and ghost stories is what I love to read most!
Great we have something you like.
I am very curious about Love, Virtually. Thanks for the giveaway!
I read it when it came out in Germany and loved it.
Very much enjoyed Love, Virtually, but I also have too large a backlog, so don’t enter me, please. The other selections sound wonderful. I must reread Grimm’s Fairy Tales one day.
Love Virtually is great. I alos liked the sequel despite the fact that I hated that he wrote a sequel…
I love the Grimm’s language. In German you can hardly find anything like it.
Oh, I wish I were fluent enough to read Grimm in German.
I read the sequel too, but didn’t like it as well.
Their German is wonderful.
The sequel is not as good but I still liked it.
I’m intrigued by Léon and Louise. The story reminds me a bit of Un long dimanche de fiançailles. Plus, those are my parents’ names!
I’d also like to be considered for the Grimm.
Thanks!
Oh really, your parents are called LéOn and Louise. What a coincidence.
I hadn’t thought of Un Long Dimanche de fiançailles but there might be a similarity.
I read The Murder Farm last year–very spooky! I think there is only one book by Andrea M Schenkel I’ve not yet read (that’s been translated anyway)–she’s sort of intense, so I’ve put it off a bit. I’d love to drop my name in the hat for Leon and Louise as that was already on my wishlist! Thanks again for doing this–I’ve got a list of reading possibilities going and may start reading later this month to get a head start–will share my own choices soon! 🙂
I’m looking forward to your list and in the hat you are. 🙂
Stuck for choice with such a variety of books. Think I would like to read the Brothers Grimm as I’ve only ever read the Ladybird versions to my children many years ago. Thanks for the reviews.
Your welcome. Te fairy tales are a great choice.
Every title appeals to me but Leon and Louise has to be one of those heartbreaking stories I love.
When not torturing my emotions, murder appeals too; Murder Farm should fill that grim bill.
Thanks to you and the publishers for the gifts.
You’re welcome. It’s going to be tough, quite a lot of interest in those two books.
As I am not sure if I could get it read and posted by the designated week I will bow out of the giveaway.
I do really like the sound of Léon and Louise. Of course, lovers separated by war thinking one another dead is a bit of a cliche. However, it sound like this one works things out very differently from the standard story.
For some reason I do find this kind of story a little overly depressing. It is admiralty irrational, but I find death be a better alternative then loss through a mistake.
I’m totally with you on that. It would be so horrible to experience this.
You wouldn’t have to read it until November, you know. Lizzy’s going to hit me on the head when she sees this. Participating in the month is all you need to do and that can be done in numerous ways. Novellas, short stories, non-fiction even.
You are so good to do these wonderful giveaways! I won’t enter this time as I have books I really must get to. But this is an amazing community event.
Thanks, Litlove. I really hope you will join us. 🙂
I’ve been tempted by the Glattauer book, but I’m not overly convinced – I have a feeling that those days are behind me 😉
Anyway, don’t enter me (I’m doing all my reading this month in the original!).
Stu liked it very much. I think he reviewed it last year. On the other hand this is really one to read in the original German if possible.
A very eclectic collection indeed! Would be happy pretty much with any of them – except for Grimm and Tell Me What You See, have the first and I think I’m a bit too middle-aged for the latter.
I don’t know about that. 🙂 Maybe luck is on your side for one of the others.
This is a tough one since all of them sound great. I think I’ll try for Mesmerized. I wish you both a great event. I know I’m looking forward to it.
Thanks, TBM. I’ve got Mesmerized, I bpught it a while back and put it aside because it was the wrong moment but the writing is wonderful.
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I shall follow this with interest although I’m committed to a couple of Polish books during November.
People are getting quite excited about Philip Pullman’s retelling of Grimm’s Fairy Tales – see http://tinyurl.com/8w7veer
Although he has tried to remain faithful to the original stories, the book probably doesn’t qualify under “German” literature. I think it might make an interesting variation on the original though and I may get hold of a copy.
Thank you so much for sharing this about Pullman’s book. It would be a nice variation on the theme indeed.
I’m looking forward to see what Polish gems you will discover.
The books, except the first two, are all intriguing…especially the murder farm. Count me in Caroline 🙂 I want any of the books except for the first two.
Thank you for hosting this second giveaway…crossing my fingers now 😉
Good luck! Random org will decide next week. 🙂
The Murder Farm is the only one I’ve read so far but I’ve got Tell Me What You See as I have read another of his books and really liked his writing.
Hi, i would definitely like to win any of the book given in the book away. They all seem to be really interesting. Thanks a lot !!
They should all be good, very different but good.
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I’d like to win Love Virtually but also any other one.
BlueBlue, I’m sorry but that was last year. This year we will not have any giveaways.