First We'll Take Manhattan: Philipp Winkler at the Festival Neue Literatur

Many of readers not based in Germany might be slightly surprised at what a phenomenon Philipp Winkler's debut novel, Hool, was when it hit the shelves in Germany at the summer of 2016. While there are certainly exceptions that could be named, most notibly Clemens Meyer, contemporary German literature has frequently been diagonosed as myopic and monochromatic. The contrast between Hool, published by an imprint at Aufbau, and the stuffy winner of the German Book Prize could hardly have been greater (full review to follow). Still, it was by no means guaranteed that Winkler's heady debut would make it into English.

If you're already on this website you know how the story ends and that the English language version - Hooligan - is to be launched in a few short weeks. But before that happens, Philipp Winkler will be one of the German-language authors featured at the Festival Neue Literatur. Established in 2009 in a coopateration between various German-language cultural institutions in New York, Festival Neue Literatur (FNL) is the first and only festival to date that features German-language and American fiction together. The basic principle is to not keep the German-language authors (two from Germany, two from Austria, and two from Switzerland) in a separate corner, but rather throw them together with English language contemporaries.

Winkler will be taking part in three public events, starting off being grilled by hot-shot university students from across New York on Friday night. Then on Sunday morning translations of his and others' work will be read aloud by actors. And later that evening there will be a lively discussion about family and other ties at McNally Jackson Books.

If you don't live in New York or are simply in getting a taste of Winkler's prose (my translation), there's currently a sample up on LitHub. It's taken from the book's first couple of pages and fittingly starts with a brawl. Enjoy.