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A review by scribepub
Kruso by Tess Lewis, Lutz Seiler
Serene, mysterious and quietly profound … a reflection on the recent past that somehow feels like the most urgent kind of prophecy.
Weekend Australian
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
The German poet Lutz Seiler has brought all his art, linguistic ease, flair for dazzling images and master of what he describes as ‘the nervous systems of memory’ to this extraordinary debut novel … Kruso is an exciting, expansive work of German literature; it may well prove one of the major novels of the 21st century.
Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times
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
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.
Potsdamer 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
Kruso [is] the first worthy successor to Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain to appear in contemporary German literature.
Der Spiegel
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.
Frankenfurter 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
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.
Maggie Ferguson, Newsweek
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-Rogers, Foreword Reviews
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
Weekend Australian
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
The German poet Lutz Seiler has brought all his art, linguistic ease, flair for dazzling images and master of what he describes as ‘the nervous systems of memory’ to this extraordinary debut novel … Kruso is an exciting, expansive work of German literature; it may well prove one of the major novels of the 21st century.
Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times
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
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.
Potsdamer 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
Kruso [is] the first worthy successor to Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain to appear in contemporary German literature.
Der Spiegel
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.
Frankenfurter 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
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.
Maggie Ferguson, Newsweek
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-Rogers, Foreword Reviews
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