Leipzig Buchmesse 2014: (smow)liest presents Nina Jäckle, Thomas Thiemeyer and Katja Huber

On Thursday March 13th Leipzig Buchmesse 2014 opens to the public at the city’s exhibition centre.

And as ever (smow) Leipzig are participating in the annual Leipzig Liest public reading festival with a programme of readings by a specially selected triumvirate of authors, a programme that not only promises a diversity of styles, but guarantees visitors the best, most enjoyable, seating in Leipzig.

(smow)liest 2014 begins on Thursday March 13th with the novel Der lange Atem by Stuttgart author Nina Jäckle. Set in Japan some eighteen months after the Fukushima tsunami, Nina Jäckle’s eighth novel tells the story of an police portrait artist who returns to his home village to portrait the, as yet, unidentified bodies of tsunami victims: portraits he sketches without the wounds, scars and deformations of the catastrophe. An artistic decision that helps the relatives of the dead find solace and peace in their farewells.  While at the same time making the reader aware of the wounds, scars and deformations that remain in the affected regions of Japan. And with the Japanese population in general.

On Friday March 14th the coast of Japan is swapped for the ice of Spitzbergen and Valhalla the latest novel by Cologne born, Stuttgart based author Thomas Thiemeyer. As the archaeologist Hannah Peters begins excavating at the site of recently revealed architectural structures on Spitzbergen, structures she believes to be a mythical Nordic kingdom, little does she know that she is not the first to experiment at the site. In 1944 other forces were there, and …. the rest will be related by Thomas Thiemeyer himself.

(smow)liest 2014 closes on Saturday March 15th with Nach New York! Nach New York! by Munich based Katja Huber. Opening with the tale of a Hindenburg catastrophe survivor, Nach New York! Nach New York! – a book presumably so good they named it twice! – moves on to the tale of a young Bavarian’s search for stories of Jewish immigrants in New York. The younger protagonist is the granddaughter of the elder, and as she makes her discoveries in the city of endless possibilities she is guided, silently, unwittingly, by her grandmother’s history and experiences. And of course those from the third character in the novel: New York. New York.

The (smow)liest readings all begin at 7.30pm, entry is free, however, and based on past experience, reservations are advisable.

Contact details can be found at smow.com/leipzig

Der lange Atem by Nina Jäckle is published by Klöpfer & Meyer, Tübingen

Valhalla by Thomas Thiemeyer is published by Knaur, Munich

Nach New York! Nach New York! by Katja Huber is published by Secession Verlag, Zürich