ACCENT: THE TURNIP PRINCESS

  The archetypal story of untapped treasure has been proven possible again. Erika Eichenseer discovered thirty boxes of von Schonwerth’s manuscripts just waiting to be uncovered. Hoping to find such a trove, Eichenseer brought to light what had been stored in the Regensburg archive for more than a century. Fairy tales are fantastical by their…

ACCENT: THE BLACK SPIDER by Jeremias Gotthelf

Translated by Susan Bernofsky   This short novel was first published in 1842, but it is still resonant today.  Written under a pen name, the author takes up the cause of peasants’ rights against feudal dictatorship.  But this is not a treatise.  It is instead a carefully woven tale involving a wise grandfather, a bizarre…

REVIEW: YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE, YOUR CHILDREN ALL GONE by Stefan Kiesbye

This book nearly defies description, but here goes. The novel is a spider web of small tales, each with an allegorical twist.  Somewhere vaguely Germanic, or possibly in eastern European, is the small town of Hemmersmoor.  These people live a simple, happy life.  There are still stores on the main street – bakeries, hardware stores…

REVIEW: KINO by Jurgen Fauth

I’m not exactly sure where to begin.  This book is incredibly fresh and exciting, yet nostalgic and wise.  The narrative centers around Mina, a newlywed whose husband is hospitalized during their honeymoon.  She mysteriously receives cans of film reels, a lost movie made by her grandfather, a German director.  Intrigued, she takes them to Germany…