Marie-Luise Kaschnitz Prize

Mirko Bonné – Excursion with Cerberus

fiction, travelprose

288pp (55,400 words)

» About the author

»I imagined myself as the dog sitter of the Underworld and that Persephone has summoned me to take Cerberus for a walk. What does the three-headed guard dog of Hades look like? Where does one take him walkies?«

Mirko Bonné chooses the whole world for his walk with the Hound of Hell. The journey takes him to South America and to the Antarctic, to New York and Amsterdam, to the places of childhood and family, to the moon and back.

Cerberus’ three pairs of eyes miss nothing. In these intelligent and entertaining observations detailed, poetic travel notes alternate with digressions on art history, memories of seaside holidays and club concerts and with reflections on life and literature. On the trail of Trakl, Sebald, Camus and Whitman the author also talks about the writing of his own poetry and novels – with wit and intelligence, at once critical and cosmopolitan.

Rights sold

first serial Ukrainian – Vsesvit

» Contact

Reviews

»An analysis of our time and society, embracing American politics as easily as contemporary architectural ideas and developments in music. (...) Bonné’s book is pleasently timeless yet always rooted in the present.«
Süddeutsche Zeitung

»Mirko Bonné detests emptiness and shallowness. There is a seriousness in his books that nowadays has become a very rare quality.«
Die literarische Welt

»Let your imagination be inspired by literary sites and stories ... brilliant observations and aperçus.«
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»A synthesis of action and reflection of unparalleled literary elegance.«
SPIEGEL online

»With rare thoughtfulness and an almost existentialist seriousness, Bonné’s books enter into the basic questions of life such as fidelita and betrayal, self-image and failure. Bonné’s great literary talent reveals itself as he translates these issues into texts that are marked by stylistic ease and plasticity.«
Marie-Luise Kaschnitz Award, the Jury

More titles by Mirko Bonné