To read this in full, take out a subscription to Granta. Over forty years of new writing at your fingertips – subscribe now.
Sign in to Granta.com.
The Coup
More on Granta.com
Hades Baedeker
Ken Chen
‘You may need to gaze at death indirectly, through a mirror crafted into a shield.’
Poetry by Ken Chen.
Introduction
Thomas Meaney
‘This issue of Granta collects writing headed full tilt in the opposite direction from the literary lassitude of the land.’
The editor introduces the issue.
Today We Just Say Germany
Alexander Kluge
‘A philosopher will reflect on the world from any place.’
Alexander Kluge on Germany, translated by Peter Kuras.
Auto Mind
Adrian Daub
‘Today, Germany knows it’s supposed to talk about cars.’
Adrian Daub on car-washing the past.
Living with Germanness
Nell Zink
‘It sounds like a stand-up comedy routine, but it’s true: I moved to Germany to get away from attractive men.’
Nell Zink on German men.
Mother-Wit
Jeffery Renard Allen
‘It would be many years before I understood that around my mother’s sober acceptance of the status quo was a whole culture she had developed for our subsistence and well-being.’
