Blurred by Iris Wolff

Please join us for a literary discussion between author IRIS WOLFF, her publisher, MONIQUE CHARLESWORTH of MOTH BOOKS, and the translator RUTH MARTIN.

BLURRED (original title DIE UNSCHÄRFE DER WELT) is Iris Wolff's fourth novel and the first to be translated into English. A powerful novel of migration, identity and loss deeply informed by the fall of the Eastern bloc and by Iris Wolff’s own family history.

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 behind? 

This ‘magical feat of imagination’ (Süddeutsche Zeitung) has received tremendous reviews, was a best-seller in Germany and nominated for the German Book Prize in 2020. 

‘Iris Wolff’s books travel in time and across borders, they address the complexity of history using every shade of feeling—and such exciting plots. Readers and booksellers adore her. I’m thrilled to introduce these future classics to the English-speaking world’- Monique Charlesworth, publisher, Moth Books, in The Bookseller.
Iris Wolff was born in the medieval town of Sibiu, Transylvania, emigrated as a child and now lives in Freiburg. She has written five novels and a collection of short stories and is celebrated for her original and captivating storytelling. A best-seller in Germany, she has won numerous literary prizes. Her fiction resurrects the past and explores the lost world of her childhood in a region that for centuries was a melting pot of ethnicities and languages.

Ruth Martin studied English literature before gaining a PhD in German. She has been translating fiction and non-fiction books since 2010, and in 2020 was co-winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. 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.

Monique Charlesworth is a publisher, editor and novelist. She read French and German at Bristol University before training as a journalist; she has published four novels and a memoir and also worked as a scriptwriter. In 2023 she founded Moth Books to publish outstanding fiction and non-fiction with a strong emphasis on women’s voices and on connecting across borders, particularly with Europe.