BOOKS FROM LUXEMBOURG 2020
CAPYBARABOOKS
BIOGRAPHICAL
2020 BOOKS FROM LUXEMBOURG
We’ll Meet in Venice.
My Tumour and I, Me and My Tumour, in Intensive Care for 33 Days, Some before and Way Too Few after GEORGES HAUSEMER & SUSANNE JASPERS Writer’s blog about his life with cancer and description by his wife, equally an author, of the time period shortly before and following his death.
Georges Hausemer & Susanne Jaspers
Following his latest diagnosis with cancer, the writer Georges Hausemer decided in April 2016 to report on his affection in a blog. Published under the title My Tumour and I, which he changed a few months later into Me and My Tumour, feeling the tumour had no right to come first, he described his life with the disease up until a few weeks before his death in August 2018. Since Georges Hausemer could no longer tell his story to its end, his wife, the author Susanne Jaspers, played her part in documenting the period following the last blog entry. A time marked by fear and hope, despair and confidence, by intensive care and internal medicine. What remains is infinite grief over the loss – and the hope for a reunion – perhaps, one day in Venice.
1
Genre Literature – Autobiography Publication date 2019 ISBN 978-99959-43-20-2 Language German
Original title Wir sehen uns in Venedig. Mein Tumor und ich, ich und mein Tumor, 33 Tage Intensivstation, ein paar davor und viel zu wenige danach Price 20.00 € Format 12 x 20 cm Number of pages 272
Rights available World Foreign rights contact Susanne Jaspers jaspers@capybarabooks.com
Susanne Jaspers, born in Aachen in 1970, works as a publisher, travel writer and author. She shuttles among Luxembourg, the northern Eifel and northern Spain. She was married to Georges Hausemer until his death in 2018. Latest publications by Georges Hausemer: Der Schüttler von Isfahan. Karawansereien (2016), Fuchs im Aufzug. Erzählungen (2017), Bushäuschen in Georgien. Texte und Fotos (2017) as well as the novel Kleine luxemburgische Literaturgeschichte (published posthumously in 2018). Publications (selection) by Susanne Jaspers: Trio mit Ziege. Kriminalroman (2009), Der Duschenkrieg. Eine transsibirische Reise (2010), ALLES ÜBER LUXEMBURG (7th edition, 2019), Dann drehe ich mich um und gehe. Restaurantgeschichten (2014) as well as Mit Jean-Claude auf der Hühnerstange. Kuriose Orte in Luxemburg (2018). Jointly, Georges Hausemer and Susanne Jaspers have published the travel books Donostia/San Sebastián. Die glücklichste Stadt der Welt (3rd edition, 2019) and Luxemburg. Das einzigartigste Großherzogtum der Welt (2017).
Part 1 (Georges Hausemer) The last therapy cycle was three, no, already four weeks ago, I can hardly remember. […] Everything went fine, though, the results were encouraging, the “Stable Disease” keeps on being stable, the next control examination is not due till early October, ahead of me an entire summer to attend to the garden, translation work, raspberry and redcurrant jams, to regularly break a sweat in Ralf ’s body factory, prepare the speech for the event in October, to welcome guests in short trousers and light blouses, try the new drawing pencils from Alkmaar, fall in love with the underwear saleswoman from the neighbouring village, help Spanish slugs die a brief, painless death, proofread manuscripts, watch women’s soccer matches with S. who grumbles (hopefully) just in pretence (thus far no revelation), drink champagne (non-alcoholic!) with S. under the birch trees shortly after midday breaks, peruse a lovely note on the latest book by Tomas Espedal in the paper. Part 2 (Susanne Jaspers) On day three in the intensive care unit, I finally get to see a doctor. Dr. H. is young, takes his time, explains the situation to us rather extensively and above all comprehensibly. What’s more, he’s goodlooking. How can I think that under these circumstances? Dr. H. explains – although I am not quite sure what you catch of these explanations and what not –, that one has to compare your body in its current state to a house of cards, from which one card after another is being pulled out. In this case, the cards are your organs, which threaten to give out one by one and which they presently aim to stabilise. Not to mention the “ground sickness” which they will focus on once the imminent threat has been contained. This underlying disease, of course, is your damn tumour.
© Georges Hausemer
Georges Hausemer, born in Differdange in 1957, lived as an author, travel writer, translator and painter in Luxembourg, a small village in the northern Eifel and in San Sebastián in the Basque Country. In 2017, he was honoured with the Prix Batty Weber, Luxembourg’s most important distinction in the field of literature, for his complete works. He died in 2018.
NOVEL
Magnetosaurus Nostalgodon Coming-of-Age novel. A youth in Luxembourg in the 1970s and ’80s.
BOOKS FROM LUXEMBOURG
2020
JEAN-MARC LANTZ
“I dumped both of them by post some time later but my recollections are hazy. It was silly teenage stuff.” “Teenage stuff is never silly, you pillock, it’s dead serious. Yours is vaguely surreal, however, I must admit.” Why do so many Luxembourgers feel ashamed of their youth as soon as they have finished grammar school? Then everything is alleged to have been “childish”. But is that really true? Joé grows up in the 1970s and ’80s in the South of Luxembourg. He plays in an incredibly cool band, his parents haven’t really got over the war yet, and the country is too small for him. When he meets Beth, everything changes. Magnetosaurus Nostalgodon tells the story of someone trying to grow up without missing his childhood. A coming-of-age novel full of humour, tragedy and nostalgia.
Genre Novel
Original title Magnetosaurus Nostalgodon
Publication date 2019
Price 25.00 €
ISBN 978-99959-43-22-6
Format 12 x 20 cm
Language Luxembourgish
Number of pages 376
Rights available World Foreign rights contact Stefanie Drews Agency stefanie.drews@orange.fr
© Raymond Clement
Jean-Marc Lantz was born in Luxembourg in 1964 and studied Anglo-American Literature. He lives and works in southern Luxembourg.
From the hall, the other side of the large glass door, from the realm of the living, sounds arose which steadily grew in intensity. Speech fragments, chuckles, shouting and trampling squeezed through the small corridor like magma shortly before an outbreak. Intrigued, he lifted his head just when both wings of the double door flew back so that the glass rattled precariously. A wave of fresh air blew through this cemetery and everybody stared in disbelief at the person who had exploded into the room. The girl was bent over with laughter and all at once attempted to leave, formulate an apology and hand over a stack of books to the librarian behind the counter. Not a single intelligible word left her mouth, just infectious chaos. The girl whose shirt was hanging out of her jeans was pure anarchy. The last life buoy the castaways assembled in the room could grasp for, if they weren’t doomed yet. But ten seconds later, it was all over. Her laughter still echoed through the chapel, while she had already disappeared through the double door, the wings of which kept on swinging in an uneven rhythm till their complete standstill. Once the dust had finally settled, a bewildered public continued staring at the door into another world. Mook visibly itched to see Joé’s response. No swot had the time to hiss “Ssshh!”, but the commentaries matched the room’s mustiness in this mouldering country: “Blimey! What was that? Calamity Jane?” “That woman has got to be historical! What a laugh! Makes me come out in a rash!” One of the inmates smirked and knew he’d better grasp that final straw. Otherwise he would not make it out of there alive!
NOVEL
New Brazil
BOOKS FROM LUXEMBOURG
2020
GUY HELMINGER The life histories of two migrant women at the beginning of the 19th and 21st centuries: the fate of war and poverty refugees then and now. In 1828, a group of Luxembourg farmers, including the young Josette, leave everything behind and join a stream of emigrants who, driven by the political situation and dire living conditions, are heading for Brazil on the promise of a better life. 170 years later, Safeta reaches Luxembourg in a group of Montenegrin refugees. They too have left their homeland in pursuit of a vague promise. It will not come to bear for both women – yet neither Josette, nor Safeta can backtrack to their former lives.
Genre Novel Publication date 2020 (revised new edition)
Original title Neubrasilien Price 22.00 €
ISBN 978-99959-43-26-4
Format 12 x 20 cm
Language German
Number of pages 400
Rights available World Rights sold to Serbia (Karpos) Foreign rights contact Susanne Jaspers jaspers@capybarabooks.com
© Guy Heminger
Guy Helminger, born 1963 in Esch-sur-Alzette in southern Luxembourg, lives in Cologne. He has published poetry, various novels, stories, plays and radio plays. In 2002 he was awarded the Prix Servais for Rost, in 2004 the 3sat-Preis in Klagenfurt, in 2006 the Prix du mérite culturel de la Ville d’Esch-sur-Alzette, in 2016 the Dresdner Lyrikpreis and in 2020 the Gustav-Regler-Preis. Several of his books have been translated into other languages, e. g. the collection of short stories Etwas fehlt immer into Serbian (2018) and the play Venezuela into French (2008).
From the outside, the Don Bosco looked like a hotel in need of refurbishment and was located next to the university building. The concrete was pitted with holes, as if the war had left its mark even here. But the manager had welcomed them kindly, led them past the buckets in the corridor, into which dripped water from the ceiling, to a large room where three parties had been lodged up to now. The living units were separated by old cupboards and suspended cloths. Raif had been surprised to see buildings in Luxembourg which resembled those in his homeland. Then familiar sentences had reached his ear. The people behind the partitions spoke in Serbo-Croatian. They pushed aside the dividing cloths to have a look at the newcomers and lent a hand in setting up the temporary home. Their new living space was equipped with three beds. The neighbours added a sofa, a table and a television. A few days later, Raif found a cupboard that someone had left outside the door, and Safeta brought two posters from school. One showed a dancing schoolgirl with pigtails, the name Britney Spears underneath. On the other, a woman dressed in black posed in front of a light background with the lettering “Blondie” glowing neon-like in the upper left corner. Tima allowed her daughter to fix the pictures to the cupboard doors with drawing pins. Everyone liked their new living space. Once Safeta and the other schoolchildren had left the room in the morning, the various television sets came alive behind the cupboards and cloths [...] To be able to follow the selected programme, everyone had to turn their device a little louder than the neighbour, who in turn did the same. The ensuing babble of voices increased to a cacophony, which [...] caused everyone to leave the room and gather in the kitchen. It is here [...] that Raif had met up with Sadik again. [...] Sadik had merrily hugged Raif and called out: “Paradise, isn’t it? Say, true Paradise!”
The carpincho, also called chigüire, or better known as capybara, is considered the largest rodent in the world. Home to South America, the eminently cute fellow adores refreshing his backside in water while rearing his snout toward the sun. Such a charming and hedonistically tinged approach to living inspired the Luxembourg author Georges Hausemer and his wife Susanne Jaspers, from German-speaking Aachen and equally active in writing, to adopt the likeable contemporary as heraldic animal upon founding their publishing house in 2012. Since then, they have proudly displayed the pig-like rodent on the full range of their publications, which encompass literature, mainly from Luxembourg, children’s books, nonfiction, scientific and, ever more so, travel literature. After Georges Hausemer passed away, much too soon, in August 2018, at the age of 61, only a few months after being awarded Luxembourg’s highest literary distinction in 2017, the Prix Batty Weber, his wife Susanne Jaspers has continued running the publishing house on her own. Well, not entirely on her own – she still has the capybara.
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