Ashes for Breakfast Selected Poems

Born in Dresden in 1962, Durs Grunbein is the most significant and successful poet to emerge from the former East Germany, a place where, he wrote, "the best refuge was a closed mouth." In unsettling, often funny, sometimes savage lines whose vivid images reflect his deep love for and connection with the visual arts, Grunbein is reinventing German poetry and taking on the most pressing moral concerns of his generation. Brilliantly edited and translated by the English poet Michael Hofmann,Ashes for Breakfastexpertly introduces Germany's most highly acclaimed contemporary poet to American readers. Durs Grunbeinis the author of eight previous volumes of poetry, as well as essays and translations from the Greek and Latin. His work has been awarded many major German literary prizes, including the highest, the Georg-Buchner-Preis, which he won at age thirty-three, and the 2004 Friedrich-Nietzsche-Preis. He has lived in Berlin since 1985. Michael Hofmannlives in London and teaches part-time at the University of Florida. He has translated many German authors, among them Ernst Junger, Franz Kafka, Wolfgang Koeppen, and Joseph Roth. Born in Dresden in 1962, Durs Grunbein is the most significant and successful poet to emerge from the former East Germany, a place where, he has written, "the best refuge was a closed mouth." In unsettling, often funny, sometimes savage lines whose vivid images reflect his deep love for and connection with the visual arts, Grunbein is reinventing German poetryand taking on the most pressing moral concerns of his generation. Edited and translated by the English poet Michael Hofmann,Ashes for Breakfastintroduces Germany's acclaimed contemporary poet to American readers. "Ashes for Breakfastis a brilliantly layered book [that] never becomes repetitive thanks to its almost organic sensibility . . . Grunbein's poems read as if the forces of history pressing in on the present drove them into this world."Melanie Rehak,The New York Times Book Review "Ashes for Breakfastis a brilliantly layered book [that] never becomes repetitive thanks to its almost organic sensibility . . . Grunbein's poems read as if the forces of history pressing in on the present drove them into this world."Melanie Rehak,The New York Times Book Review "Intelligently translated . . . Despite the portentous and ubiquitous death knells sounded by many cultural critics, poetry is doing just fine, and for anyone in need of evidence, the work of Durs Grunbein should suffice . . . Grunbein is a vital new voice in the world of poetry . . . Like Joseph Brodsky, to whom he is often compared, he is a serious and focused poet whose work has a depth that deserves our attention. If given the chance, this momentous volume will offer many pleasures."David Hellman,San Francisco Chronicle "Grunbein is a truly cosmopolitan poet . . . [He is] creating poetry which, however subtly, participates in and facilitates Germany's sustained attempts of reconfiguring and redefining itself in post-Cold War Europe."Michael Eskin,The Times Literary Supplement "[Grunbein's] poems have a nonchalant grace, and shine against their setting of Stalinoid concrete, drabness and dreck. What makes them especially appealing are their volatile shifts of perspective, a sardonic wit and the way they seem to limn out a whole series of potential directions . . . The unhoused quality of these poems has found as permanent and well-constructed a home in English as anyone . . . could wish."James McKendrick,The Times Literary Supplement "Younge

Durs Grünbein is the author of eight previous volumes of poetry. His work has been awarded many major German literary prizes, including the highest, the Georg-Büchner-Preis, and the 2004 Friedrich-Nietzsche-Preis. He has lived in Berlin since 1985.