Wednesday, July 16, 2008

everything good will come

Taking a break from plugging my new book, I will plug my mum's instead. She has translated "Everything good will come" by Nigerian writer Sefi Atta, and the German version should appear this month at Peter Hammer Verlag, looking like this:



For details visit www.sigridgross.com

It's a coming-of-age story set in the chaotic (and often dangerous) city of Lagos. Atta is certainly an interesting new voice in the underappreciated field of African literature.

PS I'll take this opportunity to emphasize that Peter Hammer Verlag is not a publishing company founded by a Mr Hammer. It is named thus after a tradition going back over centuries of publishing texts that were threatened by censorship under a fictional imprint, which was sometimes given as "Pierre Marteau" and sometimes as the German equivalent "Peter Hammer". The whole point of the exercise being that the person Peter Hammer did not exist. So it's both amusing and somewhat frustrating to read on booksellers websites and in reviews something like Published by Hammer, or by Hammer, Peter.

No comments: