Käsebier Takes Berlin
Gabriele Tergit author Sophie Duvernoy translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Pushkin Press
Published:29th Oct '20
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In Berlin, 1930, the name Käsebier is on everyone's lips. A literal combination of the German words for "cheese" and "beer," it's an unglamorous name for an unglamorous man - a small-time crooner who performs nightly on a shabby stage for labourers, secretaries, and shopkeepers. Until the press shows up. In the blink of an eye, this everyman is made a star: one who can sing songs for a troubled time. Margot Weissmann, the arts patron, hosts champagne breakfasts for Käsebier; Muschler the banker builds a theatre in his honour; Willi Frächter, a parvenu writer, makes a killing from Käsebier-themed business ventures and books. All the while, the journalists who catapulted Käsebier to fame watch the monstrous media machine churn in amazement - and are aghast at the demons they have unleashed.
Tergit's novel deserves a place alongside Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz, Canetti's Auto-da-Fé, and other key works of the period * Kirkus Reviews *
Portraying a society declining into fascism, the novel resounds with hollow laughter and is crisp throughout... the journalistic sections... match the comic invention of classics like Michael Frayn's Towards the End of the Morning and Evelyn Waugh's Scoop * Publishers Weekly *
The novel's energy emerges from its distinctive style. Tergit's prose is sharp and confident, full of brilliant associative leaps... To read Käsebier Takes Berlin today, more than 80 years after its original publication, is to experience occasional shocks of recognition * LA Review of Books *
Although more than 80 years have passed since first publication, this novel almost reads as if it had been written today * Der Spiegel *
A mesmerizing book... This fast-paced novel is on par with books by Hans Fallada and Erich Kästner * NZZ am Sonntag *
ISBN: 9781782276036
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
304 pages