Blurred

Iris Wolff was born in the medieval town of Sibiu, Transylvania, emigrated to Germany as a child and now lives in Freiburg in Breisgau. She studied German literature, religious studies, painting and graphics. She worked for several years in the German Literature Archive in Marbach and also lectured on art and cultural education. She has written five novels and a collection of short stories. A best-seller in Germany and celebrated for her original storytelling and style, she has won over a dozen literary prizes. The author describes her writing as 'a rebellion against time and its greatest impertinence, transience'. Her books vividly evoke her own childhood, the village house and garden where she grew up in the Banat, a region of Romania formerly populated by German speakers, multiple nationalities and communities. Emigration during the communist period and after the fall of the Iron Curtain brought 800 years of history to an end.BLURRED was nominated for the German Book Prize, the Bavarian Book Prize (fiction) and the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize; it won two prestigious awards, the Evangelical Book Prize and the LiteraTour North Prize.

• CONTENTSLetter to readers in EnglishCHAPTERSZapadaEchoLeviathanWind WandererMacromolecularJupilterPrestigioThanks and acknowledgementsTranslator's noteGlossary of place names

'Iris Wolff proves to be a superlative storyteller … she is a master of the teasingly slow dramatic build-up.The result is memorable prose, subtle and mesmerizing.' The Times Literary Supplement'This novel, with the breadth of an epic and the lightness of touch of a fairytale … is a pocket history of 20th-century Romania. The lives in this compact marvel of a book are presented "so vividly you think you remember them yourself".' The Guardian'These lives are delicately and intimately drawn' The Irish Times‘I greatly admired Iris Wolff’s Blurred …a gripping and moving novel’ Peter Parker, Books of the Year, The Spectator'A magical feat of imagination' Suddeutsche Zeitung'A large small book, in barely two hundred pages an artfully created universe' Munich Abendzeitung'This season's discovery: Iris Wolff's enchantingly beautiful family novel' Der Tagesspiegel'This is great, great storytelling art' Deutschland radio'Extremely original narrative style'; 'a complete success' Literaturkritik.de'No one else has made history float as beautifully as this' Stefan Kister, Stuttgarter Zeitung'Blurrred is quiet, reserved and yet highly intensive and extensive' Gerrit Bartels, Tagesspiegel'A novel that is very diverse, poetic, political, psychologically astute and joyful' Ann-Dore Krohn, Literary Colloquium Berlin‘what a great and very touching experience.'Denis Scheck, Das Erste druckfrisch'"A story can be told so often and so vividly that you think you remember it yourself." This is precisely what comes to pass in BLURRED. The last chapter, Prestigio, is named for the crescendo of a magic show. A perfect fit.' Andreas Platthaus, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'A hauntingly delicate narrative in language which creates the lightest of atmospheres, always with a faint undertone of melancholy.' Pasc Eisenack, Nurnberger Zeitung‘a completely wonderful book, a magnficent and notably idiosyncratic novel bedded in the nostalgically beautiful landscape of the Banat .... A powerful story, a polyphonic concert.' Wolfgang Wiedenhoefer, Frisch vom Stapel'Iris Wolff's quiet narrative flow enchants.' Carsten Hueck, Ex Libris'Beautiful, clear images, uniting tough and gentle, depict lives shaped by political upheavals, personal tragedies and misdeeds, by individual courage, self-will, a hunger for life and a deep attachment to the soil.' Franziska Hirsbrunner, Swiss Radio and Television SRF‘Wolff's literature is poetic, rather than constructive; life itself does not follow dramaturgy.' Irina Kilimnik, Die Presse'The great quality she possesses is perhaps what Peter Handke (referring to Hermann Lenz) once called poetic history lessons.’ 'Iris Wolff has written another great novel.' Rainer Moritz, Norddeutscher Radio'Tthrough language alone, she transports us into a realm that lies beyond words. There is no escaping this magic.' Stefan Kister, Stuttgarter Zeitung'Iris Wolff has at her disposal an incredibly sophisticated psychological tool - an instrument she uses to draw her figures. It feels like watercolour, but afterwards you really feel wow - what a huge landscape has been drawn here.' Denis Scheck, WDR Westdeutscher Radio'Blurred is certainly one of the most beautiful, thrilling and fine novels of this summer's book season, indeed of this year.' Roland Freisitzer, Sandammeer'A stroke of luck for German language literature' Gerard Otremba, Sounds and Books'Iris Wolff's gift for language has produced a book … creating a homeland both for herself and for the reader. Only literature of high rank can achieve this.' Matthias Buth, Hermannstadter Zeitung'Iris Wolff travels along the edges of political systems and transcends them ... touching and stirring; because the real background is often blurred, her characters and their experiences aretremendously vivid ...' Cornelia Geissler, Berliner Zeitung