Book Tips

The Swarm

By Frank Schätzing, translated by Sally-Ann Spencer

Regan Books (May 2006)

What if the earth took revenge for the damage humankind has done to it? In Frank Schätzing’s intensively researched eco-sci-fi novel, scientists discover an intelligent life force that takes form in marine animals and uses them to strike back against humanity. The book has sold 1.5 million copies in Germany since it appeared in its original version in 2004.

Almost a Childhood: Growing up Among the Nazis

By Hans-Georg Behr, translated by Anthea Bell

Granta (August 2006)

Hans-George Behr’s parents were staunch Nazis and he even got to shake hands with “Uncle Josef” (Goebbels) and “Uncle Adolf,” he wrote in his memoir. In “Almost a Childhood,” Behr captures quotidian life in Hitler’s Germany through the rudimentary yet frank perspective of a child. Born in 1937, he was still quite young during the war, but that didn’t keep him from experiencing close-up the horrors and tragedies of war. Though Behr leaves sentimentality to the reader, his book is tinged with humor and irony.

One Day a Year

By Christa Wolf, translated by Lowell A. Bangerter

Europa Editions (January 2007)

Christa Wolf’s book took over four decades to complete. In 1960 a Soviet newspaper asked the then 31-year-old East German author to participate in the “One Day in the World” project that Maxim Gorky had begun in 1936. Her task was to keep a journal on September 27. Wolf continued the project for 43 years and in 2003 decided to publish 40 of the entries she had written between 1960 and 2000. The result is a collection of snapshots that trace Wolf’s gradually transforming attitude toward the DDR and offer personal insights into her life and work.

Why the Sky is Blue: Discovering the Color of Life

By Götz Hoeppe, translated by John Stewart

Princeton University Press (April 2007)

Why is the sky blue? Götz Hoeppe’s illustrated book explores the ways people from various cultures and time periods have tried to answer this question, from ancient myths to cutting-edge science. Hoeppe, a university lecturer in social anthropology and editor of a popular German science magazine, offers accessible insights into a question that extends well beyond the realm of science.