Blurred
ABOUT
THE BOOK
In rural Transylvania, a young wife fearing for her unborn child takes a cart ride through all-enveloping snow. That child, Samuel, grows up under the brutal Ceausescu regime in Romania, where language masks truth and even minor acts have repercussions.
What happens when one leaves, but others must stay?
Across four generations, seven voices tell the story of Samuel in Iris Wolff’s trademark precise and lyrical prose. This powerful novel of migration, identity and loss is deeply informed by the fall of the Eastern block and by Wolff’s own family history.
Original title in German Lichtungen, published by Klett-Cotta Verlag (2024)
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Ruth
Martin
Ruth Martin studied English literature before gaining a PhD in German. She has been translating fiction and non-fiction since 2010, by authors ranging from Joseph Roth and Hannah Arendt to Volker Weidermann and Shida Bazyar.
Together with Charlotte Collins, she won the 2020 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation for Nino Haratischwili’s epic novel The Eighth Life. Ruth has taught at the University of Kent and the Bristol Translates summer school, and is a former co-chair of the UK’s Translators Association.
Ruth Martin studied English literature before gaining a PhD in German. She has been translating fiction and non-fiction since 2010, by authors ranging from Joseph Roth and Hannah Arendt to Volker Weidermann and Shida Bazyar.
Together with Charlotte Collins, she won the 2020 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation for Nino Haratischwili’s epic novel The Eighth Life. Ruth has taught at the University of Kent and the Bristol Translates summer school, and is a former co-chair of the UK’s Translators Association.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
The book Lichtungen / Blurred was and still is a very well received book in public and in our library. The story begins in Zurich, but is set almost exclusively in the Banat region of Southeastern Europe. The novel is told backwards. It begins with Chapter 9 and ends with Chapter 1. The protagonists are Kato and Lev. At first, one suspects a possible love story between Lev and Kato, but after about halfway through the book, it becomes clear that and why this is impossible. Powerful in its language, yet somehow quiet, you start reading this novel and just can’t put it down. (City Library Heidelberg)