Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Griot)
Emil Bub, a schoolteacher, and his wife Veronika, a librarian, have lived in the residential area ‘Am Schwarzen Berg’ of the south-west German city of Stuttgart since the 70’s. When Hajo and Carla Rau move in next door, the Bubs, who have no children of their own, form a strong attachment to their seven-year-old son Peter, lavishing attention on him.
From that point forward, both couples’ worldviews, predilections and aspirations shape the life of this impressionable youth. Emil in particular draws Peter deep into his world of poetry and underachievement.
Many years later, Emil Bub, now on the edge of retirement, watches from his balcony as an adult Peter moves back into his parents’ house. Peter is bedraggled and unwell; his girlfriend Mia has run off, taking their children with her. This loss has sent him reeling. That summer, in the lonely houses at the edge of the Forest, the two elderly couples try in vain to get the distraught Peter back on track.
Following the success of her novel Kürzere Tage (Shorter Days), nominated for the 2009 German Book Prize, with over 70.000 copies sold – one of »the best German-language novels, not just of our time but in general« (WDR) – Anna Katharina Hahn’s latest novel, Black Mountain Side, was nominated for the prestigious Leipzig Book Fair Prize even before its publication. With »rare understanding of human nature and an equally profound understanding of human society« (Die Zeit), Hahn tells the story of desperate love in all its guises, of emotional prosthetics, and of how, when it comes down to it, even the people closest to us remain a mystery.
»[A]n equally spine-chilling and magnificent milieu study [...] Whoever has read this novel through to the end emerges to find the world made strange.« Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
»[…] a magnificent novel […].« Neue Zürcher Zeitung
»Anna Katharina Hahn’s novel is a milestone in today’s literary mainstream.« tageszeitung
»[A] masterfully constructed kaleidoscope of perspectives.« Elmar Krekeler, Welt am Sonntag
»Black Mountain Side is a seismograph for social change.« Judith von Sternburg, Frankfurter Rundschau
»This is a promising, intelligent literary constellation for someone who can write the way Anna Katharina Hahn can: always building from the fullness of everyday life, psychologically astute to the point where it’s almost unbearable.« Hans von Trotha, Deutschlandradio Kultur
Anna Katharina Hahn was born in 1970 and studied German and English literature in Hamburg. She lived in Berlin for several years and now lives and writes in Stuttgart. Her previous works include the collection of stories Kavaliersdelikt, for which she was awarded the Clemens Brentano Prize in 2005, as well as the novel Kürzere Tage, which was longlisted for the German Book Prize in 2009. In 2010, Anna Katharina Hahn was awarded the Heimito von Doderer Literary Award.
Anna Katharina Hahn was born in 1970 and studied German and English literature in Hamburg. She lived in Berlin for several years and now lives and...
For goodness’ sake, where is the boy? When her young grandson Bruno fails to show up at mealtime, Elisabeth feels like she is losing control over her life. Her daughter Cornelia has separated from...
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audio Book (Fine Voices), German Book Club (Büchergilde Gutenberg)
Madrid in the summer of 2012: the repercussions of the latest economic crisis are blatantly obvious in the capital. The young woman Ana María, called Anita, belongs to the »lost...
Arabic world rights (Sefsafa)
English world rights digital (Frisch & Co.), Finland (Lurra)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Stage Adaptation (Staatstheater Stuttgart)