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Catrin Barnsteiner
Burned Cold (Verglüht)
Short Stories
168 pages
These short stories with their crystal clear quality depict people caught in a continual teetering on the edge of an abyss of feelings unlived and obsession. An exciting new voice in young German literature, one displaying great precision and tenderness.
A new, distinctive voice in young German literature: Catrin Barnsteiner’s short stories display striking precision and tenderness in their portrayal of people on the brink of an abyss of suppressed emotion and fermenting obsession. A young woman who may be driven to murder by thwarted love; a man who senses the lie of the land between his wife and a strange visitor and who tries to disguise his hurt in the eeriest of ways; a nervous hostess seized with stage fright as her birthday celebration approaches – she decides on a dress rehearsal which threatens to take a nasty turn…
Catrin Barnsteiner’s stories follow the tradition of the American short story. What her protagonists experience is commonplace enough to occur anywhere, anytime – and yet remarkable enough that it has to be told: that day by day balancing on a tightrope – life.
Catrin Barnsteiner was born in 1975. She has been an editor of the reportage section of the newspaper Die Welt since 2001. Prior to that she wrote for various newspapers and magazines (including the news magazine Stern) Her short stories have been published in magazines and anthologies. In 2004 she was awarded the Axel Springer Prize for Young Journalists. Catrin Barnsteiner lives in Berlin. This is her first book.
“Catrin Barnsteiner possesses a rare talent …With relish and a great feel for language these eleven stories about people on the brink of (un-)happiness combine the off-the-wall imagination of a child with a reporter’s skill in eagle-eyed observation.”
Gala
“The sober tone of these short stories has the power to unsettle and to shake off indifference.”
Buchmarkt
“Smart, crafty stories…depicting both the large and small vicissitudes of life in an apparently simple language, but full of depth, emotion and comic effect.”
Deutschlandfunk
“…every sentence is a cracker…”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
[Cover: Paul Barnes, using a photo (Servir et disparaître) by Katharina Mayer
(2003/04, detail) Hardcover, 168 pages, linen with dust wrapper and book mark]