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Literature in German

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Short Letter, Long Farewell By Peter Handke Translated from the German by Ralph Manheim Introduction by Greil Marcus American myth and American reality come to a head in Handke's spare and dreamlike 1972 novel, in which a young Austrian alternately pursues and flees his ex-wife, culminating in a Hollywood ending. Price: $11.21 (25% off)

Slow Homecoming By Peter Handke Translated from the German by Ralph Manheim Introduction by Benjamin Kunkel A trilogy in which Handke, putting aside the nerve-racked style of his early work for a new simplicity, meditates on exile, art, and the nature of the bonds between parent and child. Price: $11.96 (25% off)

The Rider on the White Horse By Theodor Storm Translated from the German and with a foreword by James Wright Theodor Storm produced some of 19th-century Germany's finest short fiction. Here American poet James Wright provides limpid translations of a selection of Storm's best tales. The title novella—recounting a young man's struggle to protect his village against the sea storms that beset it—is at once a chilling supernatural tale, a domestic drama, and the record of a spiritual journey. Price: $11.96 (25% off)

Rock Crystal By Adalbert Stifter Translated from the German by Elizabeth Mayer Marianne Moore Introduction by W.H. Auden Stifter's rapturous and enigmatic tale of village life begins with a small anecdote—one Christmas eve, a brother and sister lose their way amid snowdrifts while crossing the Alps—and opens onto vast questions of faith and destiny. "[Stifter was] one of the most strangely gripping narrators in world literature."—Thomas Mann Price: $9.71 (25% off)

The Post-Office Girl By Stefan Zweig Translated from the German by Joel Rotenberg Zweig's posthumously discovered novel, about the rise and fall of a provincial Austrian girl invited to the Swiss Alps by her wealthy American aunt, is available in English for the first time. Price: $10.50 (25% off)

Memoirs of an Anti-Semite By Gregor von Rezzori Translated by Joachim Neugroschel Introduction by Deborah Eisenberg Called "a rich, disquietingly good book" by The New York Times, the five interconnected stories in Memoirs of an Anti-Semite provide a panoramic yet intimate view of the deterioration of the European aristocracy in the years preceding World War II and the difficult decades that followed. Price: $11.96 (25% off)

Beware of Pity By Stefan Zweig Translated from the German by Phyllis and Trevor Blewitt Introduction by Joan Acocella The most widely read author writing in German prior to the rise of the Nazis, Zweig captures the torment of betrayal in a powerful study of affliction. Price: $12.71 (25% off)

Chess Story By Stefan Zweig Introduction by Peter Gay New translation by Joel Rotenberg A new English translation of the international psychological thriller Schachnovelle. Price: $9.71 (25% off)

The Stalin Front By Gert Ledig Translated from the German and with an introduction by Michael Hofmann A grueling story of combat in a newly discovered masterpiece of world literature. Price: $10.50 (25% off)

The Lord Chandos Letter and Other Writings By Hugo von Hofmannsthal Introduction by John Banville New translation by Joel Rotenberg In Hugo von Hofmannsthal's celebrated autobiographical novella a young nobleman reveals to his patron Sir Francis Bacon his particularly modern crisis of spirit. Price: $11.21 (25% off)

Walter Benjamin By Gershom Scholem Translated from the German by Harry Zohn Introduction by Lee Siegel Gershom Scholem was a precocious teenager when he became Walter Benjamin's close friend. His account of that relationship is at once a tribute to his friend's genius and a lament for his personal and, as Scholem sees it, intellectual self-destructiveness. Price: $13.46 (25% off)

A Sorrow Beyond Dreams By Peter Handke Translated from the German by Ralph Manheim Introduction by Jeffrey Eugenides "In A Sorrow Beyond Dreams, the author confronts his mother’s suicide in a compelling story that is like an explanation of a recurrent dream, a dream so vividly expressed it becomes our dream." —Chicago Sun Times Price: $9.71 (25% off)

Selected Stories of Robert Walser By Robert Walser Translated from the German by Christopher Middleton Foreword by Susan Sontag An ideal introduction to this fascinating writer of whom Hermann Hesse famously declared, "If he had a hundred thousand readers, the world would be a better place." Price: $11.21 (25% off)

The Glass Bees By Ernst Jünger Translated from the German by Elizabeth Mayer and Louise Bogan Introduction by Bruce Sterling In The Glass Bees the celebrated German writer Ernst Jünger presents a disconcerting vision of the future. Price: $11.21 (25% off)

The Waste Books By Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Translated and with an introduction by R.J. Hollingdale The record of a brilliant and subtle mind in action, The Waste Books are above all a powerful testament to the necessity, and pleasure, of unfettered thought. Price: $11.96 (25% off)

Memoirs of My Nervous Illness By Daniel Paul Schreber Introduction by Rosemary Dinnage The wonderful Schreber . . . ought to have been made a professor of psychiatry and director of a mental hospital.—Sigmund Freud Price: $14.21 (25% off)

Jakob von Gunten By Robert Walser Translated and with an introduction by Christopher Middleton Largely self-taught and altogether indifferent to worldly success, the Swiss writer Robert Walser wrote a range of short stories and essays, as well as four novels, of which Jakob von Gunten is widely recognized as the finest. Price: $10.50 (25% off)