Esther Kinsky:
Banatsko
While reading, you inevitably slow your pace, as Kinsky’s poetic language is simply captivating – filled with neologisms, carefully selected adjectives, and words we thought were long forgotten. Seemingly trivial things are given an unexpected amount of attention. Banatsko is the celebration of a region, namely northern Banat. Never before has this no-man’s-land between Hungary, Serbia, and Romania been viewed with such a loving eye, its melancholic poetry brought to life so vividly. The reader accompanies the author into the town of Battonya’s dilapidated residential streets, overgrown with vegetation, while she weaves a tale of an old movie theater, the villagers, a love affair, and the slow conquest of home in this new world.
“The author turns her reflections on this borderland into a linguistic event. You smell, taste, hear, and see this place because Kinsky slowly leafs through its pages as if it were a photo album.” Anja Hirsch, FAZ January 22, 2011
Banatsko
Novel
Matthes und Seitz, Berlin, January 2011
ISBN: 978-3-88221-723-0
About the Author’s Research: Banatsko is the second book written by the author as a result of her research trip in 2006 to the area near the borders of Hungary, Romania, and Serbia. During this trip, she spent some time in the town of Battonya in Hungary’s Banat region. Over the course of five months, she varied between periods of travel and periods spent working on the book. “I wanted to deliberately leave the choice of places I wrote about to chance.” Kinksy firmly believes that Banat is cultural region that needs to be rediscovered.
About the Author: Esther Kinsky, born in 1956, studied Slavic and English studies in Bonn and Toronto. Today she lives and works in Berlin and Battonya, Hungary, as a translator of scientific and literary texts from Polish, English, and Russian into German. For her work, she has received grants from the German Translators’ Fund as well as the 2002 Brücke Berlin Prize and the 2010 Paul Celan Prize. She will be awarded the Karl Dedecius Prize in 2011.
While reading, you inevitably slow your pace, as Kinsky’s poetic language is simply captivating – filled with neologisms, carefully selected adjectives, and words we thought were long forgotten. Seemingly trivial things are given an unexpected amount of attention. Banatsko is the celebration of a region, namely northern Banat. Never before has this no-man’s-land between Hungary, Serbia, and Romania been viewed with such a loving eye, its melancholic poetry brought to life so vividly. The reader accompanies the author into the town of Battonya’s dilapidated residential streets, overgrown with vegetation, while she weaves a tale of an old movie theater, the villagers, a love affair, and the slow conquest of home in this new world.
“The author turns her reflections on this borderland into a linguistic event. You smell, taste, hear, and see this place because Kinsky slowly leafs through its pages as if it were a photo album.” Anja Hirsch, FAZ January 22, 2011
Banatsko
Novel
Matthes und Seitz, Berlin, January 2011
ISBN: 978-3-88221-723-0
About the Author’s Research: Banatsko is the second book written by the author as a result of her research trip in 2006 to the area near the borders of Hungary, Romania, and Serbia. During this trip, she spent some time in the town of Battonya in Hungary’s Banat region. Over the course of five months, she varied between periods of travel and periods spent working on the book. “I wanted to deliberately leave the choice of places I wrote about to chance.” Kinksy firmly believes that Banat is cultural region that needs to be rediscovered.
About the Author: Esther Kinsky, born in 1956, studied Slavic and English studies in Bonn and Toronto. Today she lives and works in Berlin and Battonya, Hungary, as a translator of scientific and literary texts from Polish, English, and Russian into German. For her work, she has received grants from the German Translators’ Fund as well as the 2002 Brücke Berlin Prize and the 2010 Paul Celan Prize. She will be awarded the Karl Dedecius Prize in 2011.
Sommerfrische
"Sommerfrische" (Summer Retreat) is one of two books which are the results of my travels in the northern Banat region in 2006. My travels took me many times through the border area of Hungary, Romania, and Serbia – an area which, until 1939, was highlighted by its particular ethnic and linguistic diversity. Unlike "Banatsko" (a publication from Matthes & Seitz planned for spring 2010) which is laid out as a multifaceted search for clues and a survey of this geographical area which is today defined by incisive borders, "Sommerfrische" is a straightforward novel with one narrative thread and and engages mainly the Hungarian side. The novel's setting is the Hungarian-Romanian border area between the Mures and Tisza rivers and in particular one typical holiday resort, the kind which is especially prevalent in this east Hungarian region characterized by its rivers. These holiday resorts, which are primarily located along the banks of the Tisza from the Ukrainian to the Serbian border, fascinated me because time seemed to have stood still there for decades.
Sommerfrische
Novel
Matthes & Seitz Berlin
Publication date: February 2009
ISBN: 978-3-88221-722-3
"Sommerfrische" (Summer Retreat) is one of two books which are the results of my travels in the northern Banat region in 2006. My travels took me many times through the border area of Hungary, Romania, and Serbia – an area which, until 1939, was highlighted by its particular ethnic and linguistic diversity. Unlike "Banatsko" (a publication from Matthes & Seitz planned for spring 2010) which is laid out as a multifaceted search for clues and a survey of this geographical area which is today defined by incisive borders, "Sommerfrische" is a straightforward novel with one narrative thread and and engages mainly the Hungarian side. The novel's setting is the Hungarian-Romanian border area between the Mures and Tisza rivers and in particular one typical holiday resort, the kind which is especially prevalent in this east Hungarian region characterized by its rivers. These holiday resorts, which are primarily located along the banks of the Tisza from the Ukrainian to the Serbian border, fascinated me because time seemed to have stood still there for decades.
Sommerfrische
Novel
Matthes & Seitz Berlin
Publication date: February 2009
ISBN: 978-3-88221-722-3
