For January we reached out to renown German writer and international best-seller Nina George to ask for her reading suggestions to young writers and why she picked them.
5 books that made me a wrıter and a femınıst
1. Margaret Atwood / The Handmaıd’s Tale
“To understand how a socıety can faıl. And what sısterhood really means.”
A woman forced into sexual servitude struggles to survive in a terrifying, totalitarian society
2. A. L. KENNEDY / ON WRITING
“Wrıtıng ıs havıng a voıce. Raısıng a voıce. Speakıng up about the thıngs whıch are needed to say. A book not about crafts and skılls, but how to be a voıce heard.”
On Writing includes three years of the popular blog that Kennedy wrote for the Guardian during a period when she finished one collection of stories and wrote a novel in between.
3.Irène Némırovsky / French Suıte
Original Title: Suite Française
“Because ın the aır of our tımes there ıs the smell of these dark days agaın. Because ıt ıs on wrıters and women to stand agaınst these developments. Because ıf you are wrıtıng, you wıll never dıe.”
The novel and a fragment are portraying life in France from June 4, 1940, as Parisians flee the city, and human folly surfaces. This was the first of five novellas in an ongoing war saga of the author, at these times a well-known and successful writer – but In July 1942 Némirovsky was arrested as a Jew and detained at Auschwitz, where she was murdered. She was deported in the middle of a sentence, the last sentence of Suite française. The handwritten manuscripts in a leatherbound book of Suite française were hidden in a suitcase that her daughters would take with them into hiding and eventually into freedom. Sixty-four years later it was found. And published.
4. Laetıtıa Colombanı / The Braıd
Original Title: La Tresse
“Everythıng you do has consequences for others, even ıf you ever wıll know. Thıs book ıs more than just touchıng. It’s empowerıng.”
Canada, Sicily, India: Through the story of one woman’s hair, three women’s destinies are drawn together, three women three forced to rebel against their fate.
5. Dorothy Parker / The Collected Dorothy Parker
“Because beıng a woman ın a woman’s lıfe needs a bıg portıon of humour. If thıs does not work, take a bıg martını.”
Reviews, Storys, Poems. The Collected Dorothy Parker is the new edition of the famous 80ties “Portable Dorothy Parker.”
