Karen Duve

"Rödluvan bodde i Vifor, en av de högre belägna bergsbyarna. Hennes pappa var Kimi Topolov, tillsyningsmannen, och hennes mamma hade suttit i fängelse, sades det. Jag vet inte hur det är på andra ställen, men här hos oss i bergen betyder det socialt självmord att ha på sig en röd luva när alla andra har en svart." * En bakslug dvärg som vill kyssa och lägga beslag på Snövit för egen del. * En groda som får att göra med en gangsterboss och hans dotter. * En ålderssvag prins som fått vänta i hundra år på den förlösande kyssen och som plågas av ålderskrämpor. * En avdankad soldat som gärna vill stycka lik så som hans reskamrat Vår herre . *Och tjejen som mobbas för sin röda mössa i skolan och av syskonen. Den tyska författaren Karen Duve har tagit 5 klassiska sagor av Bröderna Grimm, plockat isär dem och satt ihop dem på nytt, till en ljuvlig och bitsk hylling som hon dukar fram med en stors portion av svart humor. Bland Karin Duves verk, som har blivit översatta till 14 språk, kan nämnas Regenroman (1999, sv. Regnroman 2001), Dies ist kein Liebeslied (2000, sv Ingen sång om kärlek 2004), Die entführte Prinzessin (2005), Taxi (2008) och Anständig essen.Ein Selbstversuch (2010). Flera av Duves romaner har blivit teaterpjäser. Hon har även skrivit barnböcker och en barnserie.

It is 1996 and Anne Strelau is sitting on a plane bound for London, heading towards the man she has loved since her teens. Having tired of the pretence of living 'normally', she has given in to her 'madness' and decided to confront the object of her passion, Peter Hemstedt. In fact, there is little that is 'normal' about Anne. Most obviously, at 112 kg, she is grotesquely overweight. "This is Not a Love Song" is the story of Anne's ups and downs: of her unhappy childhood, her miserable adolescence, and the start of her obsession with her weight. 'The decision to embark on the first diet is a decisive, if not the most decisive, step in a girl's life', she decides. 'In any case, it is more important than the hugely overrated event of losing your virginity.' First anorexic then bulimic, she measures her self-worth in kilos and boyfriends. Then she falls for handsome, successful Hemstedt. When her love is not returned, she fakes 'normality' and gets a job. But still nothing works. 'I have reached a point', she records in her mid-thirties, 'where I no longer believe in anyone or anything, apart from chocolate.' A brilliantly black comedy about obesity, adult disappointment and cynicism, wars, ecological disasters and passing fashions, "This is Not a Love Song" serves up irresistibly macabre chic lit with a thick coating of grime and fat.

"It will get better when it stops raining," said Leon. When Leon Ulbricht lands a contract to write a gangster's memoirs and moves into his dream home in an East German village with his beautiful wife Martina, everything seems set for an idyllic existence. But the dream home turns out to be in the middle of a fetid swamp; his house and marriage are falling apart; he can't write the book and has spent all of his advance. It rains without end and their attempts to repair the house, or at least dry it out, are hampered by the plague of slugs eating away at the foundations. And then the gangster, wondering why his memoirs are not yet completed, decides to get nasty.