Youth: Autobiographical Writings

The short, intense autofiction Youth, translated here for the first time—is a portrait of the little north German town of Greifswald before World War I. It is a miracle of compression, a kind of personal apocalypse. Also included is one of Koeppen’s last works: a short, fragmentary text depicting Wolfgang Koeppen’s return to the town of his schooldays.--Wolfgang Koeppen is the most important German novelist of the past seventy years: a radical, not to say terrifying stylist; a caustic, jet-black comedian; a bitter prophet. His late autobiographical work—the short, intense autofiction Youth, translated here for the first time—is a portrait of the little north German town of Greifswald before World War I. It is a miracle of compression, a kind of personal apocalypse. Also included is one of Koeppen’s last works: a short, fragmentary text depicting Koeppen’s return to the town of his schooldays. “It is hard to think of a German writer of his generation who has written more sensitively or