![]() I didn’t know anything about the Edelweiss Pirates, so at first I thought from the title that it would be a jollier book than it actually is. ![]() RW: Adam Freudenheim at Pushkin Press came to me to translate it after they had bought the rights. WKL: How did you get involved in this project? Josef gives Daniel his wartime diary to read so that he learns about the events from his point of view then, and is also able to talk to him a little about the way he looks back on them now. The story is told by Daniel, a young boy in modern Germany who meets old Mr Gerlach at the cemetery when they are visiting family graves. They start to rebel and protest more publicly and face violent reprisals at every level from the Hitler Youth boys to the SS and Gestapo. At first, they just want the freedom to wear and do what they like without being pushed around in the Hitler Youth, but over time they become more political and politicised, and things get more dangerous for them. The book is the story of Josef Gerlach, who joins one of these groups with his best friend Tom at the age of 15. Rachel Ward: The Edelweiss Pirates were informal groups of young people who were opposed to the Nazi regime in Germany, before and during the Second World War. Could you tell us a bit about The Edelweiss Pirates? A deeply affective and invaluable collection from a truly generational talent, one whose stories remain as poignant as they were upon her English language debut nearly three decades ago.World Kid Lit: Hi Rachel, thanks for talking to us. The reader is left with a sense of newfound wonder at the range of human experience-from sitting in silence with a loved one to being treated with the utmost kindness and care by a near stranger. Perhaps she is merely keenly aware and able to uncover and foreground the beauty that can be found in even the mundane. Yoshimoto's primary concern throughout the collection is the pursuit of happiness, and across the various stories she describes life's simplest moments as though they were moments of great beauty. "Banana Yoshimoto's newly translated short story collection, Dead-End Memories, maintains the author's light and easily readable writing style without erasing the hardship and trauma its female protagonists face. ![]() I also very much appreciated the translator's note at the beginning!"Ĭounterpoint | Recommended by Meghana Kandlur, Bookseller at Seminary Co-op Bookstores I have long been fascinated with María Sabina, the Mazatec curandera and poet who shared the secret of psilocybin with the world, whose legacy reminds me of Zora Neale Hurston's-lost and forgotten by those who once lauded them and abandoned by their own people-so it was fascinating and moving to read Lozano's fictional interpretation, which gives new depth and context via a supporting protagonist rooted in contemporary Western colonized society, where those of us with Indigenous and African lineages have been forced to forget our ancestral spiritual practices but are now beginning to awaken to them once again. "Mexican author Brenda Lozano captivates with her dual-narrative of a famous curandera/shaman, Feliciana, keeper of the "Book," the secret of psilocybin mushrooms and their key to unlocking ancestral healing ceremonies, in conversation with a younger journalist who explores her own life's story and its possible magic alongside Feliciana's recounting of her own history. ![]() Catapult | Recommended by Angela María Spring, Owner of Duende District Bookstore ![]()
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