Mark used a tea towel to take the glass plate out of the microwave. He pressed his finger into the other slice. Für mich war es zuerst schwer, mich daran zu gewöhnen, da es so auch keinen "roten Faden" gibt, an dem man sich festhalten kann, und mn es meist anders von Büchern gewöhnt ist.

It’s an honour, and after all these years of writing, a wonderful recognition and appreciation that means a lot to me. This year’s 13-strong longlist contains three languages – Bulgarian, Catalan and Tamil – that have never appeared before. In total, the list comprises 11 languages with three writers – GauZ’, Zou Jingzhi and Amanda Svensson – whose work has appeared in English for the first time. Amanda Svensson, who is the Swedish translator of Ali Smith’s novels, is longlisted for A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding, a family saga about triplets, translated by Nichola Smalley from Swedish. The cumulative power of [the] well-constructed, pitiless and unflinching dispatches from the underbelly of society is remarkable…. Historical events often pass unnoticed by those living through them, unaware even of how much their lives have been changed. It is Meyer’s achievement to capture the profound effects those events had on the lives of those at the bottom of German society.’When the Berlin Wall falls, a group of boys—Daniel, Rico, Paul, Walter, and Mark—are 13 years old and living in a poor quarter of Leipzig—that is, on the East German side of the wall. The notion of “liberation” is not part of their world view, and the wall’s fall does not bring about immediate economic prosperity to those born and raised in the German Democratic Republic. Its industries are Soviet-era, devoted to producing cheap, poorly made and designed goods no one has any use for, now that they can buy better-made goods from the West. Before the fall, when the boys are around 8 years old, their fathers have jobs, often as skilled laborers. Danny, Rico, Mark, 'Porno' Paul, Stefan ('Pitbull') and Little Walter live in Leipzig; and were thirteen years old in 1989 when the Berlin Wall was torn down. So we see them growing to adulthood in the turbulent years following the Reunification of Germany.

Standing Heavy by GauZ’, translated from Ivoirian by Frank Wynne, is about two generations of Ivoirians trying to make their way as undocumented workers in Paris. Reviewing the book in the Guardian, John Self described it as “inventive and very funny”. I ragazzi dello zoo di Lipsia, quelli dall'altra parte del muro, giovani pionieri comunisti, ma anche giovani divisi in bande che ne raccontano la provenienza - sociale, toponomastica, geografica: quelli dell'est, anche a est della stessa Lipsia, Leipzig, che tifano per la Chemie - la squadra di calcio locale - né nazi, né punk, né fasci né zecche, né hooligan (e poi, anche, tedeschi dell’ovest, vietnamiti, neri) - uniti dalla birra, dai primi tatuaggi e dai primi furti, dalla vita randagia a dispetto delle famiglie che hanno - più o meno scomposte, più o meno disfatte, più o meno disfunzionali che siano - e dalla scuola che cerca di inquadrarli e omologarli a immagine e somiglianza dell'ideologia comunista. Speaking to the assembled children at the school, an East German police officer says there are some who never learn, and that’s why we have to… that’s why there have to be consequences. His words turn out to be very true. Many of their problems are caused by the boys themselves. They are not, of course, helped by the fact that they live in a very deprived area where gangs rule, the police are not interested in anything but brutally suppressing bad behaviour, theft, alcohol and drugs are the norm and few if any of the parents are role models for their children. The only way is down and, sadly, they eagerly head downwards. A sharp and satirical take on the legacies of French colonial history and life in Paris today. Told in a fast-paced, and fluently translated, style of shifting perspectives, Standing Heavy carries us through the decades - from the youthful optimism of the decolonisation of the 1960s to the banal realities of daily shift work on the margins of contemporary consumer society - to deliver a fresh perspective on France that is critical, funny and human. The other key issue is sex and though it certainly plays a role here, it is surprisingly limited. Danny and Rico in particular will have a lot of casual sex, including with prostitutes. However regular girlfriends are very limited. Danny has two that he is interested in. One goes to West Germany with her parents and they do not keep in touch while the other goes down the slippery slope like the boys. If the others have girlfriends, they are not mentioned and one of the boys even maintains that he is impotent. However, they frequently steal and peruse porn magazines so we can assume that masturbation is frequent.

Ich hatte beim Lesen ein Bild des Gerhard-Schöne Albums „Du hast es nur noch nicht probiert“ von 1988 vor Augen und das zugehörige Lied „Sie haben Blues im Blut, die kleinen Jungen aus den großen Städten…“ im Ohr.