The lyrical, bestselling 2014 German Book Prize winner, from the winner of the 2023 Georg Buchner Prize.

It is 1989, and a young literature student named Ed, fleeing unspeakable tragedy, travels to the Baltic island of Hiddensee. Long shrouded in myth, the island is a notorious destination for hippies, idealists, and those at odds with the East German state.

On the island, Ed stumbles upon the Klausner, Hiddensee's most popular restaurant, and ends up washing dishes there, despite his lack of papers. Although he is keen to remain on the sidelines, Ed feels drawn towards the charismatic Kruso, unofficial leader of the seasonal workers.

Everyone dances to Kruso's tune. He is on a mission - but to what end, and at what cost? Ed finds himself drawn ever deeper into the island's rituals, and ever more in need of Kruso's acceptance and affection. As the wave of history washes over the German Democratic Republic, the friends' grip on reality loosens and life on the island will never be the same.

PRAISE FOR LUTZ SEILER

'An enigmatic Bildungsroman, adapting the literary trope of the island refuge to the dying days of East German socialism ... English readers can delight in this prizewinning translation from Tess Lewis, which renders Seiler's vision in prose of startling clarity.' The Saturday Age

'Kruso [is] the first worthy successor to Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain to appear in contemporary German literature.' Der Spiegel

About the Author
Lutz Seiler was born in 1963 in Gera, Thuringia, and today lives in Wilhelmshorst, near Berlin and Stockholm. Since 1997, he has been the literary director and custodian of the Peter Huchel Museum. His many prizes include the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, the Bremen Prize for Literature, the Fontane Prize, the Uwe Johnson Prize 2014, and the German Book Prize 2014. Tess Lewis is a writer and translator from French and German. Her translations include works by Peter Handke, Anselm Kiefer, and Philippe Jaccottet. She has won a number of awards including the 2015 ACFNY Translation Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is an Advisory Editor for The Hudson Review. www.tesslewis.org

Reviews

'An important work ... in its chronicling of the final days of communism in East Germany ... Excellent translation.'

-- Adrian Tahourdin * Times Literary Supplement *

'The German poet Lutz Seiler has brought all his art, linguistic ease, flair for dazzling images and mastery of what he describes as "the nervous systems of memory" to this extraordinary debut novel ... Kruso is an exciting, expansive work of German literature; it may well prove one of the major novels of the 21st century.'

-- Eileen Battersby * The Irish Times *

'Kruso [is] the first worthy successor to Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain to appear in contemporary German literature.'

* Der Spiegel *

'This novel set in the historic summer of 1989 is a lighthouse, not an ivory tower.'

* Suddeutsche Zeitung *

'A special book that will endure.'

* Frankfurter Rundschau *

'Seiler's novel Kruso shows what German literature can accomplish when it's fully worked.'

* Welt am Sonntag *

'That rare treasure - a great novel.'

* Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten *

'A multi-layered philosophical novel that poses a major question to us and to our time: How is freedom possible?'

* Die Zeit *

'Lutz Seiler's writings trace their roots to Uwe Johnson's poetry and reflect the German past, present and future beyond the surface of "simple truths" [...] In Kruso, Lutz Seiler visualises the hopes and constraints of a whole country by means of one singular place, Hiddensee, during one short period of time, June to November 1989.'

* from the statement of the Uwe-Johnson-Prize 2014 jury *

'Seiler delivers a debut novel with which he manages to catapult himself into the front rank of this country's authors.'

* Die Zeit *

'A sublime book that is far more than just the novel of the year.'

* Deutschlandradio Kultur *

'This novel has historical-philosophical dimensions: it is a significant contemplation on different forms of freedom as well as a wonderfully poetic exaltation of a concrete historical event - a truly great book.'

* 3sat Kulturzeit *

'Seiler's novel is lyrical and powerful in its eloquence. Already he is to be counted among the great contemporary German literary figures.'

* WDR 5 *

'A seamless English translation by Tess Lewis ... Readers might doubt whether Robinson Crusoe can work in a German setting - they might even feel affronted that it's been attempted - but Seiler's novel springs from his own experience in a way that underlines the universality of the tale.'

-- Maggie Fergusson * Newsweek *

'If communism's final moments are an island of time, Kruso is a bottled message washed up from those distant shores. A strange journey, Seiler's novel subscribes to island rules, with historicity suspended above and between fevered dreams of perfect community and beguiling freedom.'

-- Letitia Montgomery-Rodgers * Foreword Reviews *

'An outstanding debut novel ... Beautifully phrased and paced, Tess Lewis's translation delights on every page as she conveys "the contagious sense of liberation" that blows through Mr Seiler's mesmeric novel.'

* The Economist *

'An enigmatic Bildungsroman, adapting the literary trope of the island refuge to the dying days of East German socialism ... English readers can delight in this prizewinning translation from Tess Lewis, which renders Seiler's vision in prose of startling clarity.'

* The Saturday Age *

'The poetic language and careful expression to the prose in Kruso make for an arresting read too, slightly odd and off-beat, but quite compelling. It's also a novel of big themes - freedom (personal and political), longing (in all its gradations), and mourning, in particular - and the narrative's general sense of drift, with these bobbling up constantly but never overwhelming the story, is particularly well done. A fine, big novel.'

-- M.A. Orthofer * The Complete Review *

'Lutz Seiler, winner of the English PEN Award and German Book Prize, brings a tumultuous debut novel to an English-speaking audience. Set on a bohemian Baltic coastal island, this novel of a cult of personality during the last days of the Soviet occupation of the GDR grips readers just as Kruso's charisma grips our protagonist.'

* World Literature Today *

'Lutz Seiler employs lyrical, sensual language with a hint of magic to describe the summer of 1989 on the island of Hiddensee - a 'gateway to evanescence' ... One can read this compelling Robinsonade involving the eponymous Kruso and the young dishwasher Edgar as an eloquent tale of both a personal and historic shipwreck - and as a poet's coming of age novel ... Lutz Seiler's first novel impresses with its thoroughly distinct poetic language, its sensual intensity and its worldliness.'

-- Jury comments from the 2014 German Book Prize

'It is certainly an impressive book worthy of admiration. It sole focus on the lives of an outlying few in the telling of one of modern history's most significant moments and the close intertwining of their lives with it, without ever directly addressing the politics or historical situation is a feat to behold.'

-- Raphael Solarsh * ArtsHub *


Awards
Winner of German Book Prize 2014 (Germany) and English PEN Award 2015 (UK). Runner-up for Schlegel-Tieck Prize 2018 (UK). Long-listed for International Dublin Literary Award 2019 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781911344001
Author Lutz Seiler
Format Hardback
Page Count 480
Imprint Scribe Publications
Publisher Scribe Publications
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 153mm * 37mm