About People bookcover

About People

Juli Zeh 

(Author)

Alta L. Price 

(Translator)
4.9/5.0
21,000+ Reviews
Bookshop.org has the highest-rated customer service of any bookstore in the world

Description

A World Literature Today Notable Translations of 2023

Written by Germany's #1 bestselling author Juli Zeh, About People takes place in the middle of lockdown in spring 2020 and subtly describes the social and very private consequences of the pandemic.

Fleeing stay-at-home orders in the big city, Dora and her dog move to the countryside to sit out the pandemic. She knows that Bracken, a village in the middle of nowhere, isn't the idyll most city dwellers dream of, but she's desperate for space and a change of scene. The quaint old house she's saved up for needs work, weeds have taken over the yard, and her skinhead neighbor fits all the stereotypes. Just what is Dora really looking for? Distance from her boyfriend Robert, whose climate activism has crossed into obsession? Refuge from her inner turmoil? Clarity on how the whole world got so messed up? As Dora tries to keep her demons in check, unexpected things start happening all around her. Juli Zeh's epic new novel explores our present predicaments, biases, weaknesses, and fears, but-above all--it reveals the strengths that come to light when we dare to be human.

Product Details

PublisherWorld Editions
Publish DateOctober 03, 2023
Pages320
LanguageEnglish
TypeBook iconPaperback / softback
EAN/UPC9781642861334
Dimensions8.0 X 4.9 X 1.1 inches | 0.9 pounds

About the Author

JULI ZEH studied law in Passau and Leipzig, and holds a doctorate in international law from the University of Saarbrücken. She is one of Germany's most successful authors of both literary thrillers and novels. Her debut novel Eagles and Angels was an international bestseller and won the Deutscher Book Prize, since which time her books have been translated into 35 languages. She has been awarded myriad prizes for her work, including the Carl Amery Literature Prize, the Thomas Mann Prize, and the German Order of Merit. New Year (World Editions), also translated by Alta L. Price, was a finalist for the Helen & Kurt Wolff Prize and the 2022 PEN America Translation Prize.


ALTA L. PRICE runs a publishing consultancy specialized in literature and nonfiction texts on art, architecture, design, and culture. A recipient of the Gutekunst Prize, she translates from Italian and German into English. Price's translation of Juli Zeh's novel New Year, also published by World Editions, was a finalist for the 2022 PEN America Translation Prize as well as the Helen & Kurt Wolff Prize.

Reviews

Praise for Juli Zeh

"Zeh challenges readers to consider how complicit we are in our current political dilemmas." -Los Angeles Times

Praise for About People

A World Literature Today Notable Translations of 2023

"At the peak of the pandemic, a woman splits with her boyfriend over his increasingly rigid commitment to environmentalism and heads to the German countryside. The new home needs unexpected work, she and her dog promptly clash with their menacing neighbor, and unexplained things are happening all around her. An intense exploration of fear and isolation." --CrimeReads

"A revealing novel about the state of our nation." --SWR

"Juli Zeh's new work shoots straight to the heart of Germany's excessive demands: with a lot of wit and compassion and also with a large portion of hope for a more conciliatory society." --ZDF

"The first real corona novel, which takes place in the middle of lockdown in spring 2020 and subtly describes the social and very private consequences of the pandemic." --Süuuml;ddeutsche Zeitung

"A cool-headed and politically astute portrait of a village where life is precarious, beset by a dying infrastructure and right-wing attitudes." --Bayern2

"Juli Zeh has caused a stir with About People. The novel is gripping and doesn't make it easy for itself or its audience." --rbb Inforadio

"About People goes beneath the surface of ideologies and attitudes." --Stuttgarter Zeitung

"A deft, imaginative and absorbing novel about a post-heroic protagonist who is sweating from hard work rather than fear, caught between stoicism and struggle." --Köouml;lner Stadtanzeiger

"A conciliatory novel that does not conceal evil, but demonstrates that the world, viewed less ideologically, could be a little more humane."--Deutschlandfunk Kultur

"A novel for our times, especially our Covid-times, in which much is clarified and intensified, including failure, loneliness, and sanguine fits of hatred." --WDR3

"I would love to recommend this to everyone to read, to break down all these walls that somehow exist between the different groups in society." --Rbb Kultur


Praise for New Year

PEN AWARD 2022 FINALIST

"In this wrenching psychological portrait from Zeh, a character's buried traumatic past distorts his memory and loosens his grip on reality...Zeh's novel skillfully asks how a person can come to terms with a painful past that has been intentionally misremembered for the purpose of sustaining one's mental health. Readers, though, will have no trouble remembering this." --Publishers Weekly, *starred review*

"This spine-tingler captures the peak of what appears to be a spectacularly hallucinatory middle-aged crisis." --Kirkus Reviews, *starred review*

"Zeh's suspense writing is masterful. ... In New Year, she spins a tale of the uncanny, as Henning encounters items from his

Earn by promoting books

Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.sign up to affiliate program link
Become an affiliate