Journey through a Tragicomic Century

Francis Nenik ist ein Pseudonym, der Autor scheut die Öffentlichkeit. Er wurde Anfang der 80er geboren und lebt in Leipzig. Zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen in renommierten Zeitschriften wie Merkur, Edit und Words Without Borders, die zum Teil fürs Radio vertont wurden. Sein Debütroman „XO“ erschien 2012 in Form einer Loseblattsammlung, im selben Jahr erhielt er den 2. Preis im Essay-Wettbewerb der Literaturzeitschrift Edit. Der Essayband „Doppelte Biografieführung“ sowie der Roman „Die Untergründung Amerikas“ erschienen 2017. Im Januar 2017 startete Francis Nenik sein „Tagebuch eines Hilflosen“, in dem er online die Amtszeit von Donald Trump literarisch begleitet.

Katy Derbyshire ist eine in London geborene, in Berlin lebende Übersetzerin und Literaturvermittlerin, die sich auf zeitgenössische deutsche Schriftstellerinnen und Schriftsteller konzentriert. Sie hat u.a. Werke von Clemens Meyer, Christa Wolf, Heike Geißler und Olga Grjasnowa übersetzt.

'... particularly peculiar, breath-taking and worth telling.'
Alexander Solloch, NDR Kultur

'Francis Nenik tells [...] this man's story from his birth in 1911 to his years in the KPD, in Nazi imprisonment, in the Wehrmacht, the new beginning, via sudden twists, crashes, departures. He has found a tone that corresponds to his hero's defiant independence.'
Süddeutsche Zeitung

'With an inclination for the apparently tangential, precise research and a generous portion of linguistic confidence, Francis Nenik pulls off the trick of distilling a kind of micro-history of the absurd 20th century itself out of the life of a wrongly forgotten man.'
Deutschlandfunk Büchermarkt

'Nenik seems not only to be a researcher as obsessive as he is gifted, with the nose of a truffle hog. He can also write. And how. In his pleasantly dimensioned 192-pager, luscious elements of Anglophone historians' narrative talent, including first-person perspective, are wedded with the picaresque novelist's lust for imaginative style.'
Sächsische Zeitung

'... a vividly written slice of German history - which finds suitable form in this mixture of non-fiction and novel.'
MDR Kultur

'... history written as we have never read before, fast-paced, subjective and funny.'
The Daily Frown

'... particularly peculiar, breath-taking and worth telling.'
Alexander Solloch, NDR Kultur

'Francis Nenik tells [...] this man’s story from his birth in 1911 to his years in the KPD, in Nazi imprisonment, in the Wehrmacht, the new beginning, via sudden twists, crashes, departures. He has found a tone that corresponds to his hero’s defiant independence.'
Süddeutsche Zeitung

'With an inclination for the apparently tangential, precise research and a generous portion of linguistic confidence, Francis Nenik pulls off the trick of distilling a kind of micro-history of the absurd 20th century itself out of the life of a wrongly forgotten man.'
Deutschlandfunk Büchermarkt

'Nenik seems not only to be a researcher as obsessive as he is gifted, with the nose of a truffle hog. He can also write. And how. In his pleasantly dimensioned 192-pager, luscious elements of Anglophone historians’ narrative talent, including first-person perspective, are wedded with the picaresque novelist’s lust for imaginative style.'
Sächsische Zeitung

'... a vividly written slice of German history – which finds suitable form in this mixture of non-fiction and novel.'
MDR Kultur

'... history written as we have never read before, fast-paced, subjective and funny.'
The Daily Frown