Die Geschichte einer kurzen Ehe
Anuk Arudpragasam | Hannes Meyer
„Was passiert, passiert, und wir müssen es hinnehmen. Glück und Trauer sind etwas für Leute, die Kontrolle darüber haben, was ihnen passiert.“
Jury notes:
Civil War in Sri Lanka: In a refugee camp two Tamil teenagers who have lost everything marry. It is an arranged, somewhat awkward marriage intended mainly to ensure that the bride is taken care of and also for mere companionship. Yet immediately following their first tentative approaches, a bombing kills the girl, leaving the boy alone and emotionally shattered. His absolute helplessness is reflected in the – even in drastic moments – quiet language of the excellent translation by Hannes Meyer. What civil war, displacement, loss, the mundaneness of the unspeakable does to people, has rarely been told in such an intimate and harrowing way as here by Anuk Arudpragasam. – Frank Heibert
Author: Anuk Arudpragasam
Anuk Arudpragasam, born in 1988, grew up in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he still lives today. He writes in Tamil and English and is about to complete a doctoral degree in philosophy at Columbia University. The Story of a Brief Marriage is his first novel.
Author’s website: anukarud.com
Translator: Hannes Meyer
Hannes Meyer was born in 1982 in Preetz near Kiel. He studied literary translation in Düsseldorf and has been working as a freelance translator since 2007. He has translated books by James Franco, Philip Kerr and other authors.
Recent publication:
- Curtis Dawkins: Alle meine Freunde haben wen umgebracht, Suhrkamp Verlag, 2018 [The Graybar Hotel, New York 2017]