Axolotl Roadkill
ABOUT
THE BOOK
An extraordinary and controversial bestseller in Germany from a teenage literary prodigy – a cynical Catcher in the Rye of the noughties.
‘Horrible lives are a godsend,’ writes 16-year-old Mifti in her diary. Since the death of her mother, she has been living in Berlin in an increasingly dire state of disarray. Diagnosed as a ‘pseudo stress-debilitated’ problem child, she becomes enmeshed in the Berlin party scene, surviving her so called life through a haze of sex, drugs and club culture.
What sets Mifti apart is her hypersensitivity and her open, questioning curiosity about an older generation that doesn’t seem to be able to care for its children. Torn between genius and madness, she delves into the language of adults, their conventions and toys with what she calls, ‘the general decay of their worlds, where the pursuit of prosperity has led to neglect’.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Katy
Derbyshire
Katy Derbyshire was born in London and has lived in Berlin for the past twenty years. She translates contemporary German writers, including Simon Urban,Helene Hegemann, Inka Parei, Clemens Meyer, Jan Brandt, Felicitas Hoppe and many others. She writes occasional criticism and essays in English and German, published by Lithub, The Quarterly Conversation, Music and Literature, New Books in German and Der Tagesspiegel. Katy co-hosts a monthly literary translation lab in Berlin and has taught translation in London, Leipzig, New York, New Delhi and Norwich.
Katy Derbyshire was born in London and has lived in Berlin for the past twenty years. She translates contemporary German writers, including Simon Urban,Helene Hegemann, Inka Parei, Clemens Meyer, Jan Brandt, Felicitas Hoppe and many others. She writes occasional criticism and essays in English and German, published by Lithub, The Quarterly Conversation, Music and Literature, New Books in German and Der Tagesspiegel. Katy co-hosts a monthly literary translation lab in Berlin and has taught translation in London, Leipzig, New York, New Delhi and Norwich.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
Helene Hegemann’s forceful debut about a young angry woman in Berlin; intelligent, well educated, frustrated, neglected, lost. Driven to distraction, dissociative, with lots of drugs, sex, hallucinating scenes, she experiences a surreal city. This novel has its very own sound.