“In this acidly funny novel” of life in Soviet Russia, “a cruel comic romp ends as a surprisingly winning story of hardship and resilience” (The New Yorker). A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year A German Book Award Finalist A Huffington Post and Wall Street Journal Favorite Read of the Year When Rosa Achmetowna discovers that her seventeen-year-old daughter, Sulfia, is pregnant, she tries every bizarre home remedy there is to thwart the pregnancy. But despite her best efforts, the baby girl Aminat is born―and immediately wins Rosa’s heart. The dark-eyed Aminat is a Tartar through and through, just like Rosa, and the devious grandmother wastes no time in plotting to steal her away from the woefully inept Sulfia. When Aminat, now a wild and willful teenager, catches the eye of a sleazy German cookbook writer researching Tartar cuisine, Rosa is quick to broker a deal that will guarantee all three women a passage out of the Soviet Union. But as soon as they are settled in the West, the dysfunctional ties that bind mother, daughter, and grandmother begin to fray.

The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine

Literature & Fiction

Bronsky, Alina

Humor & Satire

Europa Editions

The acclaimed author of Broken Glass Park brings her “warmth, humor and sharp observational eye” to a disfigured teenager’s coming of age in Berlin (Kirkus Reviews). Once a handsome teenager, seventeen-year-old Marek is left badly disfigured after a Rottweiler attack. Now his mother sends him to a support group for young people with physical disabilities―what he calls “the cripple group”―led by an eccentric older man only known as “the guru”. Angry at the world and dismissive of the group, Marek sees no connection between their misfortunes and his own. Then a family crisis forces Marek to face his demons, and he finds himself in dire need of support. But the distance he has put between himself and the guru’s misshapen acolytes may well be too great to bridge. Just Call Me Superhero cements Alina Bronsky’s reputation as one of Germany’s most compelling and stylish young authors. An atmospheric evocation of modern Berlin, a vivid portrait of youth under pressure, and a moving story about learning to love, this new novel from the author of Broken Glass Park and Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine is an irreverent look at the sometimes-difficult work of self-acceptance.

Just Call Me Superhero

A defiant woman and her colorful neighbors reclaim their homes in Chernobyl in this “enthralling story of humor, tragedy, and triumph” (World Literature Today). There may be government warnings about radiation levels in her hometown of Tschernowo―also known as Chernobyl―but Baba Dunja has returned. And she’s brought a motley bunch of her former neighbors with her. With the town largely to themselves, and lots of strangely misshapen fruit, they have everything they need to start anew. The terminally ill Petrov passes the time reading love poems in his hammock; Marja takes up with the almost 100-year-old Sidorow; Baba Dunja whiles away her days writing letters to her daughter. Life is beautiful. But then a stranger turns up in the village, and once again the little idyllic settlement faces annihilation. From Alina Bronsky, the acclaimed Russian-born German author of Broken Glass Park and The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, comes the story of a post-meltdown settlement and an unusual woman who finds her version of paradise late in life.

Baba Dunja's Last Love

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2021 From the acclaimed author ofThe Hottest Dishes Of The Tartar Cuisine&nbsp;"a cruel comic romp ends as a surprisingly winning story of hardship and resilience" (The New Yorker). Max lives with his grandparents in a residential home for refugees in Germany. When his grandmother--a terrifying, stubborn matriarch and a former Russian primadonna--moved them from the Motherland it was in search of a better life. But she is not at all pleased with how things are run in Germany: the doctors and teachers are incompetent, the food is toxic, and the Germans are generally untrustworthy. His grandmother has been telling Max that he is an incompetent, clueless weakling since he was a child and she'd spend the day sitting in the back of his classroom to be sure he came to no harm. While he may be a dolt in his grandmother's eyes, Max is bright enough to notice that his stoic and taciturn grandfather has fallen hopelessly in love with their neighbor, Nina. When a child is born to Nina that is the spitting image of Max's grandfather, things come to a hilarious if dramatic head. Everybody will have to learn to defend themselves from Max's all-powerful grandmother.&nbsp; Alina Bronsky writes of family dysfunction and machinations with a droll and biting humor, a tremendous ear for dialog, and a generous heart that is forgiving of human weakness. While Max's grandmother recalls the outrageously nasty Rosa from Bronsky's best-selling book, The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, this is a more tender and moving family portrait. Here the best-selling and internationally renowned author, while never abandoning her trademark and razor-sharp wit, tells a family story through a young boy's eyes. Max, over the course of the story, will appreciate that people's questionable behaviour may often be motivated by sadness. "Irony, subtle humor, fascinating characters. A book that, after you finish it, you immediately want to start to read again."--Stuttgarter Zeitung "Uplifting, surprising, spot on."--NDR Radio

My Grandmother’s Braid

A bittersweet and hilarious novel about a marriage whose decades-old routine is suddenly upended. Walter Schmidt has lived his whole life within the narrow, "comfortable" confines of traditional gender roles: he has made it to retirement without learning how to fry an egg or use a vacuum cleaner. After all, he could always count on his wife, Barbara. But when one morning she can't get up from bed anymore, everything changes. With biting humor and great warmth, Alina Bronsky writes about how Walter, nearing the end of his life, is suddenly forced to reinvent himself as a caregiver and house-husband, and become the caring partner he never was in all his years with Barbara. Little by little, Walter's rough facade begins to crumble--and with it his old certainties about his life and family.

Barbara Isn’t Dying: A Novel

Sharp and tender at once, a humourous take on family dysfunction and human weakness seen through a young boy’s eyes.\nMax lives with his grandparents in a residential home for refugees in Germany. When his grandmother―a terrifying, stubborn matriarch and a former Russian primadonna―moved them from the Motherland, it was in search of a better life. But she is not at all pleased with how things are run in Germany. 
His grandmother has been telling Max that he is an incompetent, clueless weakling since he was a child. While he may be dolt in his grandmother's eyes, Max is bright enough to notice that his stoic and taciturn grandfather has fallen hopelessly in love with their neighbour, Nina. When a child is born to Nina that is the spitting image of Max’s grandfather, things come to a hilarious if dramatic head. Everybody will have to learn to defend themselves from Max’s all-powerful grandmother.

My Grandmother's Braid

In this “riveting debut” a Russian teenager living in Berlin dreams of taking revenge on the man who killed her mother―“A stark, moving tale of resiliency” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). A finalist for the prestigious Ingeborg Bachmann Prize Now an award-winning motion pictureSeventeen-year-old Sascha Naimann was born in Moscow, but now lives in Berlin with her two younger siblings. She is precocious, independent, streetwise, and ever since her stepfather Vadim murdered her mother several months ago, an orphan. Unlike most of her peers, Sascha doesn’t dream of escaping the grim housing project where they live. Sascha’s dreams of writing a novel about her beautiful but naïve mother . . . and of taking Vadim’s life. In a voice that is candid and self-confident, by turns childlike and mature, Sascha relates the internal struggle between those forces that can destroy us, and those that lead us out of sorrow and back to life. Broken Glass Park goes straight to the heart of what it means to be young, alive, and conscious in these first decades of the new millenium. “A gripping portrayal of life on the margins of society.”―Freundin magazine(Germany)

Broken Glass Park: A Novel

Literary

Scherbenpark: Originaltext mit Annotationen.

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Klett Sprachen GmbH

Scherbenpark (KIWI)

Scherbenpark

Kiepenheuer & Witsch GmbH

Contemporary

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Books by Bronsky, Alina