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The Book of Words, by Jenny Erpenbeck

Translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky

A searing novella about coming of age in a land of tyranny, by one of Germany's most brilliant young authors.

In The Book of Words, Jenny Erpenbeck captures with amazing virtuosity the inner life of a young girl who survives the totalitarian regime of a curiously unnamed South American country (most likely Argentina during it "dirty war"). Raised by parents whose real identity ends up shocking her, the girl comes of age in a country where gunshots are mistaken for blown tires, innocent citizens are dragged off buses, and tortured and disappeared friends and family return to visit her from the dead.

JENNY ERPENBECK was born in East Berlin in 1967. She has worked on opera and musical productions since 1991, and now lives in Berlin. Her books of fiction have been translated worldwide.

Date of publication: December 2007