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A review by scribepub
Kruso by Lutz Seiler
If communism’s final moments are an island of time, Kruso is a bottled message washed up from those distant shores. A strange journey, Seiler’s novel subscribes to island rules, with historicity suspended above and between fevered dreams of perfect community and beguiling freedom.
Letitia Montgomery-Rodgers, Forword Reviews
An outstanding debut novel … Beautifully phrased and paced, Tess Lewis’s translation delights on every page as she conveys “the contagious sense of liberation” that blows through Mr Seiler’s mesmeric novel.
The Economist
[A}n exciting, expansive work of German literature; it may well prove one of the major novels of the 21st century.
Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times
A seamless English translation by Tess Lewis … Readers might doubt whether Robinson Crusoe can work in a German setting — they might even feel affronted that it’s been attempted — but Seiler’s novel springs from his own experience in a way that underlines the universality of the tale.
Newsweek
An enigmatic Bildungsroman, adapting the literary trope of the island refuge to the dying days of East German socialism … English readers can delight in this prizewinning translation from Tess Lewis, which renders Seiler’s vision in prose of startling clarity.
The Saturday Age
Kruso [is] the first worthy successor to Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain to appear in contemporary German literature.
Der Spiegel
This novel set in the historic summer of 1989 is a lighthouse, not an ivory tower.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Seiler’s novel Kruso shows what German literature can accomplish when it’s fully worked.
Welt Am Sonntag
That rare treasure — a great novel.
Postdamer Neueste Nachrichten
A multi-layered philosophical novel that poses a major question to us and to our time: How is freedom possible?
Die Zeit
Lutz Seiler’s writings trace their roots to Uwe Johnson’s poetry and reflect the German past, present and future beyond the surface of “simple truths” … In Kruso, Lutz Seiler visualises the hopes and constraints of a whole country by means of one singular place, Hiddensee, during one short period of time, June to November 1989.
From the statement of the UWE-Johnson-Prize 2014 Jury
Seiler delivers a debut novel with which he manages to catapult himself into the front rank of this country’s authors.
Die Zeit
A special book that will endure.
Frankfurter Rundschau
A sublime book that is far more than just the novel of the year.
Deutschlandradio Kultur
This novel has historical-philosophical dimensions: it is a significant contemplation on different forms of freedom as well as a wonderfully poetic exaltation of a concrete historical event — a truly great book.
3SAT Kulturzeit
Seiler’s novel is lyrical and powerful in its eloquence. Already he is to be counted among the great contemporary German literary figures.
WDR 5
The poetic language and careful expression to the prose in Kruso make for an arresting read too, slightly odd and off-beat, but quite compelling. It's also a novel of big themes — freedom (personal and political), longing (in all its gradations), and mourning, in particular — and the narrative's general sense of drift, with these bobbling up constantly but never overwhelming the story, is particularly well done. A fine, big novel.
M.A. Orthofer, The Complete Review
Lutz Seiler, winner of the English PEN Award and German Book Prize, brings a tumultuous debut novel to an English-speaking audience. Set on a bohemian Baltic coastal island, this novel of a cult of personality during the last days of the Soviet occupation of the GDR grips readers just as Kruso’s charisma grips our protagonist.
World Literature Today
Letitia Montgomery-Rodgers, Forword Reviews
An outstanding debut novel … Beautifully phrased and paced, Tess Lewis’s translation delights on every page as she conveys “the contagious sense of liberation” that blows through Mr Seiler’s mesmeric novel.
The Economist
[A}n exciting, expansive work of German literature; it may well prove one of the major novels of the 21st century.
Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times
A seamless English translation by Tess Lewis … Readers might doubt whether Robinson Crusoe can work in a German setting — they might even feel affronted that it’s been attempted — but Seiler’s novel springs from his own experience in a way that underlines the universality of the tale.
Newsweek
An enigmatic Bildungsroman, adapting the literary trope of the island refuge to the dying days of East German socialism … English readers can delight in this prizewinning translation from Tess Lewis, which renders Seiler’s vision in prose of startling clarity.
The Saturday Age
Kruso [is] the first worthy successor to Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain to appear in contemporary German literature.
Der Spiegel
This novel set in the historic summer of 1989 is a lighthouse, not an ivory tower.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Seiler’s novel Kruso shows what German literature can accomplish when it’s fully worked.
Welt Am Sonntag
That rare treasure — a great novel.
Postdamer Neueste Nachrichten
A multi-layered philosophical novel that poses a major question to us and to our time: How is freedom possible?
Die Zeit
Lutz Seiler’s writings trace their roots to Uwe Johnson’s poetry and reflect the German past, present and future beyond the surface of “simple truths” … In Kruso, Lutz Seiler visualises the hopes and constraints of a whole country by means of one singular place, Hiddensee, during one short period of time, June to November 1989.
From the statement of the UWE-Johnson-Prize 2014 Jury
Seiler delivers a debut novel with which he manages to catapult himself into the front rank of this country’s authors.
Die Zeit
A special book that will endure.
Frankfurter Rundschau
A sublime book that is far more than just the novel of the year.
Deutschlandradio Kultur
This novel has historical-philosophical dimensions: it is a significant contemplation on different forms of freedom as well as a wonderfully poetic exaltation of a concrete historical event — a truly great book.
3SAT Kulturzeit
Seiler’s novel is lyrical and powerful in its eloquence. Already he is to be counted among the great contemporary German literary figures.
WDR 5
The poetic language and careful expression to the prose in Kruso make for an arresting read too, slightly odd and off-beat, but quite compelling. It's also a novel of big themes — freedom (personal and political), longing (in all its gradations), and mourning, in particular — and the narrative's general sense of drift, with these bobbling up constantly but never overwhelming the story, is particularly well done. A fine, big novel.
M.A. Orthofer, The Complete Review
Lutz Seiler, winner of the English PEN Award and German Book Prize, brings a tumultuous debut novel to an English-speaking audience. Set on a bohemian Baltic coastal island, this novel of a cult of personality during the last days of the Soviet occupation of the GDR grips readers just as Kruso’s charisma grips our protagonist.
World Literature Today