German Youth Literature Award

Lower Rhine Literature Award

Reinhard Kaiser – Paper Kisses

memoir/biography, young adult

128pp (25,600 words) with illustrations

» About the author

English sample translation (pdf)

Rudolf Kaufmann, a young Jewish geologist, and the young Swede Ingeborg Magnusson met in 1935 in Bologna and spent thirteen precious days together before they had to part again.
After that they had to make do with an exchange of letters, their correspondence telling the story of a »true love« that blossomed under the terrifying regime of Nazi Germany, a love at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Sixty years later, at a stamp auction, Reinhard Kaiser stumbled upon a bundle of envelopes that still held their original handwritten contents and was immediately captivated by their tale. How did such precious correspondence end up on the auctioneer’s table? Did either of the lovers survive the war?
In KÖNIGSKINDER, Kaiser allows the letters to speak for themselves, while providing enough historic context to reveal how remarkable the couple’s loyalty and optimism were against the backdrop of the harrowing events of World War II.

Rights sold

Czech Republic - Kartuziánské nakladatelství
Spain (Castilian, World) - Alba Editorial
US (English World) - Other Press

Previously published / rights reverted:

China complex (Taiwan) - New Sprouts
France - Autrement
Greece - Boukoumanis
Italy - Longanesi, TEA (paperback)
Italy - Mondadori bookclub
Japan - Hakushuisha
Korea - Motive
Sweden - Alfabeta

paperback - Fischer
paperback (second edition) - Berlin Verlag
audio book – der Diwan

» Contact

Reviews

»A deeply saddening but also very touching book has arisen - a literary work of the utmost significance, because Kaiser pieces together text and picture with great finesse.« Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»KÖNIGSKINDER shows poetically why in real life everything is more beautiful but also more tragic than in literature.« Focus

»Outstanding representative of a consciousness-raising memoir-literature.«
Jury Lower Rhine Literature Prize

»As unbelievable as life.« Süddeutsche Zeitung

»It is the touching story of a great love, which had to collapse in the face of contempt for mankind of its time.« Hamburger Abendblatt


Reviews from abroad:

»Kaiser’s gem of a story provides readers with a fresh, intimate angle from which to view the devastating effects of Hitler’s war on the world.«
Publishers Weekly

»Reinhard Kaiser might have written a novel based on these letters. But he’s accomplished something finer. KÖNIGSKINDER is a sort of archeology of the heart: beautiful, heartbreaking, memorable.«
Mary Dora Russell, author of A Thread of Grace

»The story is compelling, and the experience is similar to reading Anne Frank's Diary.«
School Library Journal

»KÖNIGSKINDER is a story that will haunt the reader long after the short book is over.«
The Historical Novel Review

»A tale of brief happiness, misfortune, and the vicissitudes of war and racism. The text of KÖNIGSKINDER does not even run to 100 pages, but the emotional distance covered there is enormous. (...) This is, at the very least, one of the saddest story I've ever heard. But it is also a fundamental and imperishable tale of what happens to two fairly ordinary people, who only longed to be together during one of the darkest moments in all of history.«
Jewish Exponent

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