Born in East Germany, Jenny Erpenbeck, one of the most prominent voices in contemporary German literature, was 22 when the Berlin Wall fell. Her novel, Kairos (translated into English by Michael Hofmann in 2023), is the first book translated from German to win the International Booker Prize.
Jenny Erpenbeck: 'History Is To Be Understood As It Is Seen In The Personal Lives Of People'
While in India to attend the 2025 Jaipur Literature Festival, Jenny Erpenbeck spoke to Vineetha Mokkil about her perpetual search for the story behind the story
Kairos is a doomed love story set against the backdrop of the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the 1980s. The Booker judges praised Erpenbeck for using the love story as a way of examining “the broader political machinations of Germany” and for “often meeting history at odd angles”. Erpenbeck라이브 바카라 writing credits include the novels The End of Days (winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the Hans Pallada Prize) and Visitation (2010), which was named one of the 100 best books of the 21st century by The Guardian.
In 2018, her novel Go, Went, Gone, which focuses on the struggles of African asylum seekers in Europe, and grapples with the themes of race, immigration, and European identity, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. Erpenbeck라이브 바카라 works have been translated into over 30 languages. In her unconventional memoir, Not a Novel (2020), she recounted her experience of growing up in East Germany and the everyday reality of the people around her. While in India to attend the 2025 Jaipur Literature Festival, Erpenbeck spoke to Vineetha Mokkil about her perpetual search for the story behind the story and about being “the ambassador of her generation”.
Kairos
You wrote Kairos, a complicated romance set around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, thirty years after the collapse of the GDR. That라이브 바카라 a long gap…
I’m East German and I used to become emotional when asked about the fall of the Wall. After 30 years, I was ready to look back at my experience of that time as writing material. Working on Kairos was a way to better understand the period in which East Germany joined the Federal Republic of Germany, how that transition happened, what people experienced before and after the process. Political decisions that are made on paper have a very real impact on individual lives.
It is a writer라이브 바카라 privilege to share with her readers what that feels like. What does it feel like to leave your home? To lose your country, your job, the means to support your family? To see the world as you knew it ending? History is to be understood as it is seen in the personal lives of people. Nineteen-year-old Katharina and middle-aged Hans’ troubled romance in Kairos is a big love, but it is also a story about the shifting of power, about abuse and shattered illusions. A love story set in a fraught point in history. The novel captures the horror and the beauty of their story and of that time.
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How much research did you have to do to ensure historical accuracy in your novel?
I did a lot of research, but no complaints there! I like to spend time on doing research for my books. It helps you to understand all the aspects. My diaries were one of the sources I relied on. I have saved lots of memorabilia from my childhood years. I also scoured the archives and read many non-fiction books. I wanted to share a comprehensive picture of that phase with my readers. I feel that I am the ambassador of my generation.
Go Went, Gone
What motivated you to write your novel Go, Went, Gone (trans. Susan Bernofsky) in which a retired academic gets drawn into the lives of African refugees in Berlin?
In 2013, boats crammed with refugees capsized and 400 people drowned in the Mediterranean. I read about the catastrophe in German newspapers. The tone of the reports was that of pity, but it was made clear that we couldn’t take in the refugees. I didn’t think this was the appropriate response to the crisis. As a writer, I thought I should make people understand the asylum seekers’ dilemma.
Who were they and what kind of lives had they been living? Why were they so desperate to find a place of refuge? I set aside everything else I was working on and went to meet the African refugees living in the protest camps in the heart of Berlin. They spent three years in these camps and were then moved to asylum houses. I talked to them; spent a lot of time listening to their stories. I was able to make many friends. When they moved from the protest camps, I followed them around and I’m still in touch with them. That라이브 바카라 how Go, Went, Gone took shape.
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Your books have been translated by several excellent translators such as Susan Bernofsky and Michael Hofmann. What kind of working relationship do you share?
We share a good rapport. I am a bit controlling (laughs). When Michael was translating Kairos, he did a first draft and let me take a look at it. He is German and he grew up in the United Kingdom. I would explain some things to him about the time my novel is set in to give more context. There are certain aspects the western world is not aware of. Translation is a complex process and we should be grateful to translators for all the hard work they put in.
With Kairos being awarded the International Booker Prize, more countries would be interested in acquiring the translation rights for it. I'm hopeful that the Booker win will open more doors for German literature globally. But it's important to remember that the English-speaking world is not the only world. German may not be widely spoken, but we read a lot of translated books. I grew up reading books by Russian, Arabic and English writers, all translated into German.
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You are an avid reader and you were born into a family of writers. Does it worry you that we are losing out on the pleasure of reading in the digital age?
When I see the eager audiences at literature festivals, I feel hopeful. But it saddens me when I hear that even my writing students don't want to read the classics or books published a while ago. You can't measure good literature in terms of time. There is so much to discover in the classics and books written in the not so recent past. One of my favourite reads is Ovid's Metamorphoses, which was written in about 8 CE. It talks about transformation and transition; about nature and humankind; and the porous borders between all life forms. Another favourite author of mine is dramatist and director Heiner Müller. His plays are deeply wise and profound.
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