English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Adriana Hidalgo), Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai Translation Publishing House), France (Les Belles Lettres), Italy (Del Vecchio Editore), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Slovenia (Sodobnost)
Respected philosopher Hans Blumenberg is leading a quiet, unassuming life of the mind in Münster in the early eighties, when one night he discovers a lion in his study. A student prank? A metaphysical apparition? A prestigious award of some sort?
Only Blumenberg can see the animal, and yet he is not alone in falling under its spell. Four of his students are also affected, including the ardent Blumenbergian Gerhard Optatus Baur and the delicate, highly-strung Isa who falls in love with her professor.
Following the success of her novel Apostoloff, which received numerous awards including the Leipzig Book Fair Prize, Sibylle Lewitscharoff now turns her attention to a truly unusual character: an endearing and agreeable thinker tackling the big questions of the human condition, struck by a miracle in the form of a mysterious lion. A scintillating, affecting novel, which was longlisted for the 2011 German Book Prize even before it was published.
»Not a word is wasted by Lewitscharoff in this superbly written novel where everything is significant. Themes and style alike contribute to the overall effect: a clever blend of poetry, philosophy and comedy by an author who is a master of her craft. […] A highly original work.« New Books in German
»Sibylle Lewitscharoff’s Blumenberg is an absolute joy to read.« Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
»[…] one of the most capable prose stylists of contemporary German literature […].« Deutschlandradio Kultur
»A truly exceptional book.« Der Spiegel
»Sibylle Lewitscharoff writes with a linguistic force that is unparalleled in German literature « Paul Jandl, Neue Züricher Zeitung
»Just as the grandiose stylist Blumenberg embraced […] literature, insisting on its truth value as a source of greater self-knowledge, so too does Lewitscharoff embrace philosophy with all her wit and linguistic prowess.« Tagesspiegel
»Sibylle Lewitscharoff breathes new life into that classic combination of romance and philosophy, with scintillating results.« Süddeutsche Zeitung
»Sibylle Lewitscharoff’s marvellous homage to the philosopher Hans Blumenberg.« Frankfurter Rundschau
»Blumenberg confirms Sibylle Lewitscharoff’s status as the most intellectually courageous writer of her generation. […] Highly intellectual […] but also highly entertaining.« Die Welt
»Storytelling at its very best« Literarische Welt
Things aren’t great with our flighty hero. Not even the clear night sky can entice him from his bed. The disappointment about the humiliation his »so-called friend« inflicted on him is too great.
Gloomy weeks skulk by until the phone rings one morning and a not entirely unlikable lady whom Pong has just met voices interest in the empty flat in his house. The background check comes...
Sibylle Lewitscharoff’s narrator is looking down onto his own grave, the bereaved friends and neighbours, onto the strange and the familiar in the city that is moaning under the oppressive heat...
Arabic world rights (Fawasel)
A highly dramatic scene: a father leans over the defenceless boy, the knife flashing in his hand – when, at the last moment, an angel orders him to sacrifice a ram instead of his own son. The...
Russia (Medina)
Renowned Dante scholars from all around the world meet in the ancient hall of Maltese at the Roman Aventine, within view of the St. Peter‘s Basilica. The center of interest is Dante’s Divine...
France (Piranha)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Audiobuch); German Entire Radio Reading (NDR)
France (Piranha), Italy (Del Vecchio)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Random House Audio)
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Hidalgo), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Qingyan), Chinese complex rights (China Times Publishing), France (Piranha), Italy (Del Vecchio Editore), Hungary (Bookart), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Republic of Moldova / Romanian Rights (Cartier), Estonia (Atlex), Serbia (Presing Izdavastvo), Macedonia (Ars Lamina)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Book Club (Bertelsmann), German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag)