Almost Everything Very Fast
2018 Longlist

Almost Everything Very Fast

Translated from the German by Aaron Kerner
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ABOUT
THE BOOK

A charming and suspenseful novel with a dark secret at its heart, set in an insular Bavarian village

Albert is nineteen, grew up in an orphanage, and never knew his mother. All his life Albert had to be a father to his father: Fred is a child trapped in the body of an old man. He spends his time reading encyclopedias, waves at green cars, and is known as the hero of a tragic bus accident. Albert senses that Fred, who has just been given five months left to live, is the only one who can help him learn more about his background.

With time working against them, Albert and Fred set out on an adventurous voyage of discovery that leads them via the underground sewers into the distant past-all the way back to a night in August 1912, and to the story of a forbidden love.

Almost Everything Very Fast, Christopher Kloeble’s US debut, is a sensitive and dramatic family saga and page-turning road novel all in one.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Christopher
Kloeble

Christopher Kloeble is an award-winning German novelist and scriptwriter. Almost Everything Very Fast is his third book, and his first to be published in English. He lives in Berlin and New Delhi.

Christopher Kloeble is an award-winning German novelist and scriptwriter. Almost Everything Very Fast is his third book, and his first to be published in English. He lives in Berlin and New Delhi.

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Aaron
Kerner

Translator, French. Aaron Kerner completed an MFA at Emerson College, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he works as an English teacher at the Commonwealth School. He has served as an editor for Asymptote Journal, Black Sparrow Books, and David R. Godine.

Translator, French. Aaron Kerner completed an MFA at Emerson College, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he works as an English teacher at the Commonwealth School. He has served as an editor for Asymptote Journal, Black Sparrow Books, and David R. Godine.

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

The gifted 19-year-old Albert, an orphan who grew up in a children’s home, is in search of his family history. Together with his mentally handicapped father Fred, he sets off in search of his mother. Slowly, family secrets come to light. Almost Everything Very Fast is Christopher Kloeble’s first novel translated into English and deals with the issue of sibling love.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
02/02/2016
Country
Germany
Original Language
German
Publisher
Graywolf Press
Translator
Aaron Kerner
Translation
Translated from the German by Aaron Kerner

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