Schattenfroh - by Michael Lentz (Paperback)

About the Book

"Our narrator is held in complete darkness and isolation. His endless thoughts are turned into the book we are reading-Schattenfroh-directed by none other than the narrator's mysterious jailer by the same name. Undulating through explorations of Renaissance art, the German reformation, time-defying esoterica, the printing process in the sixteenth century, Kabbalistic mysticism, and beyond, Schattenfroh is a remarkable book that, in turn, asks the remarkable of its readers. Interruptions, breaks, and annotations both buoy and deceive, and endless historical references, literary allusions, and wordplay construct a baroque, encyclopedic quest. Schattenfroh's publication in English marks a seminal moment in the history of the literary form"--

Book Synopsis

An intricate, metaphysical, ambitious "psychogeography of the self" that both disrupts and elevates the 21st century vision of the novel.

Our narrator is held in complete darkness and isolation. His endless thoughts are turned into the book we are reading--Schattenfroh--directed by none other than the narrator's mysterious jailer by the same name. Undulating through explorations of Renaissance art, the German reformation, time-defying esoterica, the printing process in the 16th century, Kabbalistic mysticism, and beyond, Schattenfroh is a remarkable book that, in turn, asks the remarkable of its readers.

Interruptions, breaks, and annotations both buoy and deceive, and endless historical references, literary allusions, and wordplay construct a baroque, encyclopedic quest. Schattenfroh's publication in English marks a seminal moment in the history of the literary form.

Review Quotes

Winner of the Helen & Kurt Wolff Translation Prize

"One of the great, and greatly demanding, literary pleasures of the year." --The New York Times

"Schattenfroh is extremely long and prodigiously learned, with scenes--and even sentences--that veer from one century to another, and with a taste for literary and art historical in-jokes that might try the patience of even the most erudite reader. All the more impressive, then, is Max Lawton's translation, which renders Lentz's flinty though extravagant German into English sentences that are clear, nimble, and frankly full of beans, capturing the propulsive energy of the original text without sacrificing its difficulty." --New York Review of Books

"Michael Lentz's Schattenfroh attempts to tell the history of the annihilated world. Yet Lentz constantly prods his reader to ask who the author of that history is, and what they might be leaving out, despite their claims to completeness." --Cleveland Review of Books

"What does Schattenfroh do? Intrigue, frustrate, hypnotize, even--yes--entertain, after a certain point. What novels are supposed to do, in other words--which, we begin to realize, is not actually to create Presence but to carve around it." --Los Angeles Review of Books

"A number of this fall's biggest books are unusually long. The translated novel Schattenfroh, by Michael Lentz, described by one German reviewer as 'a genius, insane, dark or ridiculous book before which one can only helplessly surrender, ' is just over 1,000... Begin relengthening your attention span now." --Vulture

"A narrative wonder." --The Washington Post

"A novel of titanic ambition, Schattenfroh draws on the esoteric, overlooked corners of human history to trace the thoughts of one man wrestling with existence. Elegant in its thematic layerings, massive in scope, and replete with baffling linguistic skill, this is a literary landmark." --Foreword Reviews, starred review

"Lentz takes readers on a deep exploration of the relationship between art, language, suffering, and redemption. For those willing to go the distance, this monumental and taxing work offers rich rewards." --Publishers Weekly

"The best stuff in the book--the nightmare visionary parts whose eeriness is enhanced by the hypnotic state the book has put you in--are a kind of unconscious registration of the very scenario in which we find ourselves: the encroachment of ever more unforgivingly capitalist forms of cultural streamlining, of AI that purports to write and compose and make movies." --The Baffler

"Schattenfroh is a deep and mighty book that forces the reader to not only think of the word 'metaphysics, ' but to feel with their own skin its fearsome presence in our world." --Vladimir Sorokin

"The American publisher Deep Vellum has become something of a cult institution with high-quality translated literature as its hallmark." --Kultmagasin

"What competition can we talk about when dealing with perhaps the greatest German-language novel of the 21st century up to now? This in equal measure baroque and surrealist explosion of a novel belongs to the pantheon of the best works of world literature published in the past two decades." --The Untranslated

"The novel Schattenfroh is without a doubt one of the most interesting experiments in German-language literature in recent years. ... Schattenfroh is a prose work which goes far, far beyond the affairs of the current literary scene." --Andreas Puff-Trojan, SWR2 Archivradio

"Depending on how you look at it, it is a genius, insane, dark or ridiculous book before which one can only helplessly surrender." --Andrea Köhler, Die Zeit

"Schattenfroh is a wonder of technique and cultural meaning every bit as solid and fragile as a sculpture by Da Vinci. Its appearance marks bravura performances by Lentz and Lawton, with special thanks to Will Evans at Deep Vellum." --The Book Beat

"Compulsively readable." --Pittsburgh Review of Books

About the Author

Michael Lentz is an award-winning German author, musician, and performer of experimental texts and sound poetry. Schattenfroh is his first book to be translated into English. He currently lives in Berlin.

Max Lawton is a translator, novelist, and musician. He has translated many books by Vladimir Sorokin, including Blue Lard (NYRB Classics), Their Four Hearts, and Dispatches from the District Committee (both from Dalkey Archive Press).