Visiting the labyrinth
Günter Kunert’s latest poetry reveals the recollections and the present of the great poet. He looks back on childhood, back to a busy life in turbulent times. At the same time, he observes the ...
moreGünter Kunert
Günter Kunert, born in 1929 in Berlin, lives near Itzehoe. Most recently published by Hanser: Als das Leben umsonst war (poems, 2009), Tröstliche Katastrophen (2013), Fortgesetztes Vermächtnis (2014), Anstößige Geschichten (short stories, 2016) and Aus meinem Schattenreich (poems, 2018).
From My Realm of Shadows
Nobody describes the end of the world as beautifully as Günter Kunert:
“Parents / stepped out of the frame / and spoke / to their child: You are / now eighty years old and / need to grow ...
Twisted Affairs
Günter Kunert is the ironic hyperrealist per se. In-cisive, wicked, and invariably extremely funny, his short stories hold a mirror up to humanity – a mirror that won’t always show us what ...
moreGames for Grown-ups
Günter Kunert's new book is a tragi-comical report on his "German" life. Born into a so-called "mixed marriage" in Berlin, he witnesses the deportation of his Jewish mother's family to the ...
moreBeware: Apocalypses Ahead
“Kunert’s poems are never declamatory or commanding” Marcel
Reich-Ranicki wrote. “They are enquiries formulated by a sceptical contemporary mind; expressions of disquiet, of ...
The Comforts of Catastrophe
“One day I read somewhere that we sleep away half our lives,” writes Günter Kunert, “and I have to say it really doesn’t bother me that much.” Perhaps that’s because the world as we ...
moreEmergency Information
"Time heals all wounds, except the last one." Günter Kunert confronts life's tribulations with a generous dose of cynicism – and collects things to remember in everyday emergencies.
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