Allegro Pastel

  • Winner of the Mörike Prize 2021
  • Shortlisted for the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize 2020
  • Longlisted for the German Book Prize 2020
  • Nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize 2020
  • Shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Literature 2020
  • Recommended for translation by Litrix (Summer 2020)
  • Recommended for translation by New Books in German (Spring 2020)
  • SPIEGEL bestseller – highest position #7
  • Over 60,000 copies sold
  • English sample translation available

Tanja Arnheim, whose debut novel enjoys cult status, is turning 30 in a few weeks. Looking out onto Berlin’s Hasenheide park, she waits for an earth-shattering idea for her new book. Her boyfriend, the sought-after web designer Jerome Daimler, is in his mid-30s and lives in his parents’ bungalow in the countryside. Increasingly, he’s trying to understand his life as spiritual contemplation. Despite their long-distance relationship, Tanja and Jerome always stay close through texts and images. And they visit each other in their respective realities for long weekends: Their relationship is an attempt to be there for – but not lost to – each other. Their parents, friends and depressed siblings reflect a suffering to which Tanja and Jerome largely remain immune. Yet the desire to preserve their affection without letting it grow staid or painfully existential poses a major challenge for the couple.

Allegro Pastell is the story of a seemingly normal love and its transformations. A novel in three phases that begins in the recordbreakingly hot spring of 2018.

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Brazil: Bestiário / Bulgaria: Colibri / Croatia: Vuković & Runjić / Denmark: Straarup / Greece: Elkystis / Macedonia: TRI Publishing Centre / Netherlands: Leesmagazijn / Norway: Aschehoug / Russia: Ad Marginem / Serbia: Blum izdavaštvo / Sweden: Forum / UK (World English): Granta

  • Publisher: KiWi-Taschenbuch
  • Release: 09.09.2021
  • 288 pages
  • ISBN: 978-3-462-00178-5
Zuzanna Kaluzna

Leif Randt

Leif Randt, born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983, is a German author whose books to date include the utopian Planet Magnon (2015), Schimmernder Dunst über Coby County (2011) and the Londonbased novel Leuchtspielhaus (2009). He has received the Erich Fried Prize (2016) for his work as well as residencies in Japan (2016) and Ireland (2019). Since 2017, he has been co-curating the PDF and video label Tegel Media (tegelmedia.net).

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