Ruth Rehmann's Illusions

The daughter of a pastor, Ruth Rehmann (1922-2016) led a remarkably varied work life as a journalist, violinist, chanson singer, and press officer for the Indian Embassy in Bonn. In 1958, she presented a chapter of her debut novel, Illusions, to Gruppe 47, West Germany’s premier literary association. A report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called her appearance incendiary, and she was widely expected to win the group's prestigious annual prize. However, Günter Grass took the stage the following day to read from The Tin Drum, clinching the prize and overshadowing her literary career. Upon publication, critics were baffled by Rehmann's frank treatment of sexuality—mistaking it for frivolousness—and faulted her style for “an excess of contemporaneity.” Read today, its focus on the poverty of human connection within an abundant and stubbornly traditional society feels shockingly prescient.

Illusions' translator Rob Madole joins novelist Megan Nolan for a conversation moderated by Dean Whiteside about this rediscovered, postwar masterpiece.

Illusions follows four employees of the Wellis Corporation over one unsatisfactory weekend: grey-haired secretary Frau Schramm, frustrated translator Paul Westermann, fadingly glamorous Carmen Viol, and restless young assistant Therese Pfeiffer. Narrated in a prismatic, stream-of-consciousness style that jumps fluidly among characters, the book offers a portrait of the claustrophobic tension beneath postwar capitalism. Originally published by Suhrkamp in 1959 during West Germany's "economic miracle," Illusions incisively examines a regime attempting to slough off its Nazi past through a zealous drive to modernize and a rhetoric of material abundance.

“The rediscovery of this lost classic will shift perceptions of German literature in the English-speaking world. Mercurial, seductive, smart, and startling.” —Megan Nolan, from her introduction

Presented in partnership with Faber Editions. Books will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of Books on Call NYC.