Blue Mondays
1999 Nominated

Blue Mondays

Translated from the Dutch
artwork-image

ABOUT
THE BOOK

The protagonist of Blue Mondays, who happens to be called Arnon Grunberg, is a man on the run: expelled from school, uneasy with his family, he spends his days and nights living a vagabond’s life on the streets of Amsterdam. After a period spent scamming his way around the bars and restaurants of the city, Arnon eventually takes to visiting prostitutes, girls no older or wiser then himself. Arnon Grunberg was born in Amsterdam in 1971: he wrote Blue Mondays, his first novel, on a dare, and it sold 70,000 copies in The Netherlands and is a European best-seller. Arnon Grunberg now lives in New York.

Original title in Dutch Blauwe maandagen published by Nijgh & Van Ditmar (1994)

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Arnon
Grunberg

Author Arnon Yasha Yves Grunberg was born in Amsterdam in 1971. He lives and works in New York City.

Grunberg was kicked out of high school at age seventeen. He started his own publishing company called Kasimir, specializing in non-Aryan German literature, at the age of nineteen, acted and wrote plays. When he was only twenty-three years old, his first novel Blue Mondays became a bestseller in Europe and won the Anton Wachter Prize. It has been translated in thirteen languages.

His novel Silent Extras was published in 1997 and has sold more than 100,000 copies.

In 1998 he wrote the novel Saint Anthony for the Dutch “Week of the Books”. 701,000 copies were published. His collection of essays entitled The Comfort of Slapstick was published the same year.

Grunberg’s novel Phantom Pain was published in 2000 and went on to win the AKO Prize, the Dutch equivalent of the Booker. The English translation of this novel was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2005.

 

Author Arnon Yasha Yves Grunberg was born in Amsterdam in 1971. He lives and works in New York City.

Grunberg was kicked out of high school at age seventeen. He started his own publishing company called Kasimir, specializing in non-Aryan German literature, at the age of nineteen, acted and wrote plays. When he was only twenty-three years old, his first novel Blue Mondays became a bestseller in Europe and won the Anton Wachter Prize. It has been translated in thirteen languages.

His novel Silent Extras was published in 1997 and has sold more than 100,000 copies.

In 1998 he wrote the novel Saint Anthony for the Dutch “Week of the Books”. 701,000 copies were published. His collection of essays entitled The Comfort of Slapstick was published the same year.

Grunberg’s novel Phantom Pain was published in 2000 and went on to win the AKO Prize, the Dutch equivalent of the Booker. The English translation of this novel was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2005.

 

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Arnold
& Erica Pomerans

Arnold Julius Pomerans (27 April 1920 – 30 May 2005) was a German-born British translator.

Arnold Pomerans was born in Königsberg, Germany, on 27 April 1920 to a Jewish family. Because of growing antisemitism in Germany the family left for Yugoslavia and later South Africa. In 1948 Arnold Pomerans emigrated to England, where he became a full-time translator in the 1950s, after first working as a teacher.

He translated about two hundred works of fiction and non-fiction, selected from most European languages. Among the authors he translated are Louis de Broglie, Werner Heisenberg, Anne Frank, Sigmund Freud, Johan Huizinga, Jean Piaget, Jacques Presser and Jan Romein.His translation of George Grosz’s autobiography A Little Yes and a Big No earned him the 1983 Schlegel-Tieck Prize and in 1997 Pomerans was awarded the PEN Translation Prize for The Selected Letters of Vincent Van Gogh. In his obituary, he was called “one of Britain’s finest translators” by The Independent.

In 1956, Pomerans married Erica White and they moved to Polstead in Suffolk the following year. They carried out much of the translation work together. He died in Polstead of cancer on 30 May 2005, aged 85.

Arnold Julius Pomerans (27 April 1920 – 30 May 2005) was a German-born British translator.

Arnold Pomerans was born in Königsberg, Germany, on 27 April 1920 to a Jewish family. Because of growing antisemitism in Germany the family left for Yugoslavia and later South Africa. In 1948 Arnold Pomerans emigrated to England, where he became a full-time translator in the 1950s, after first working as a teacher.

He translated about two hundred works of fiction and non-fiction, selected from most European languages. Among the authors he translated are Louis de Broglie, Werner Heisenberg, Anne Frank, Sigmund Freud, Johan Huizinga, Jean Piaget, Jacques Presser and Jan Romein.His translation of George Grosz’s autobiography A Little Yes and a Big No earned him the 1983 Schlegel-Tieck Prize and in 1997 Pomerans was awarded the PEN Translation Prize for The Selected Letters of Vincent Van Gogh. In his obituary, he was called “one of Britain’s finest translators” by The Independent.

In 1956, Pomerans married Erica White and they moved to Polstead in Suffolk the following year. They carried out much of the translation work together. He died in Polstead of cancer on 30 May 2005, aged 85.

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