lit.Cologne Silberschwein Award

Ulrike Almut Sandig – Flamingos

fiction, stories, new title

176pp (36,900 words)

» Listen to a story (in german, MP3): 1 2 3

read an extract

The poetry volumes of Ulrike Almut Sandig were enthusiastically received by both readers and critics and the response to her stories which are now appearing under the title FLAMINGOS will no doubt be the same.

The stories introduce the voice of a new, quite exceptional prose author, who has already made a name for herself in the world of poetry and been awarded numerous prizes. Ulrike Almut Sandig’s prose is so new, so fresh, so exceptional and so exceptionally good. Her stories are characterised by the play of memory and the creative power of the imagination, not forgetting fairy tale elements, which she deploys with admirable sureness of touch and precision. A wonderful new voice of whom we can expect a great deal in years to come: the birth of a story-teller.

»Flamingos stand in groups, but each one is alone. They keep their distance. They are watchful. We find them ugly. We find them beautiful. They look as if they’re burning, but it’s not true. They look as if they’re unbreakable, but that is not true either. They give the impression of not being there at all. But they are there. They stand right here among us and they’re heavy. Yet on the surface of the shallow water they get away from us. And then they fly up.«

Rights sold

Bulgaria – Messechina
first serial Hindi – Saar Sansaar
first serial Ukrainian – Vsesvit literary magazine

» Contact

Reviews

»A beguiling discovery.«
Die Berliner Literaturkritik – Most Beautiful Books 2010

»Can lyric poets write prose? No, says prejudice. Yes, proves Ulrike Almut Sandig with her collection of 11 ambiguous stories, "Flamingos". (...)
Sandig is without doubt one of the most notable young German lyricists: She has already won two major new talent awards, the Meran Lyric Award and the Leonce und Lena Award. (...) She has consciously labeled her prose texts "stories" – not classical short narratives, not aiming at punch lines, not obsessively trying to create a surprise effect. Sometimes her texts are carried by a fairytale-like tone - sometimes suspending the boundaries between what is probable and what is surreal, without ever slipping into the absurd. (...) FLAMINGOS is interspersed with various motives, adroitly and unobtrusively staged and neatly held together. Ulrike Almut Sandig is a prose writer who abides by the autonomy of the fictional. With "Flamingos", she has opened a playing area for herself.«
SPIEGEL Online

»Sandig’s stories are set on a fairytale level and take on different levels of allusion, mixing the surreal, the unlikely and the likely in a plausible manner. Besides, they are carefully drafted.«
Frankfurter Rundschau

»A stunning prose debut. A particular strength of this collection is the variety of narrative voices and subject matter, which ensure that each story is new and remarkable in its own right, yet at the same time that it resonates with some of the key ideas and motifs of the others in this collection. (...) The lucidity and poetry of Sandig’s prose make each of these stories a joy to read.«
new books in german

»Our Top Winter Pick.«
tubuk.com

»Amazing, unsettling stories that reach right into the heart of poetry.«
The Daily Frown

»Dense, unique stories of poetic beauty.«
DRS (Swiss Radio)

»Every word is well considered, yet written with an enviable lightness.«
Neues Deutschland

About the author

Ulrike Almut Sandig, born 1979, grew up in Riesa and now lives in Leipzig. She studied Religion and Indian Studies and subsequently enrolled at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig. Her publications to date are the poetry volumes ZUNDER (2005) and STREUMEN (2007), the audio book DER TAG AN DEM ALMA KAMILLEN KAUFTE (the day alma bought camomile, 2006, with Marlen Pelny) and the radio play HUSH LITTLE BABY (2008). She has been honoured with many awards for her poetry, most recently the Leonce und Lena Award, one of the highest for poetry. FLAMINGOS is her first prose publication.