Welcome to LitHAUS! - a monthly reading series for contemporary German-language literature.
This month we’re meeting virtually to discuss
My Grandmother’s Braid by Alina Bronsky.
Join the digital discussion on March 31, 2021 at 6PM on Zoom:
Registration
My Grandmother’s Braid (2021), trans. Tim Mohr
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.
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.
About the author
The Daily Beast calls
Alina Bronsky "an exciting new voice in the literary world." Bronsky is the author of
Broken Glass Park and
The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, which was named a
Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Born in Yekaterinburg, an industrial town at the foot of the Ural Mountains in central Russia, Bronsky now lives in Berlin.
Summary © Europa Editions
LitHAUS is a monthly reading series for contemporary German-language literature. Each month’s selection will be accompanied by a discussion around the work and its wider themes. LitHAUS is free and open to everyone interested.
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