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With her novel Weiße Tränen (White Tears), Kathrin Schrocke has created a highly relevant and moving work that addresses the themes of friendship and love, life and death, while also tackling everyday racism at a German grammar school. Since its publication in 2023, the book has been showered with prizes and awards.

Lenni and Serkan are best friends. At least until Benjamin, the new kid, shows up. Benjamin is the first Black student at the school and the first to openly denounce racism—whether in the drama group, which wants to perform King Kong, or in the “jokes” of Lenni's favorite teacher. Lenni feels trapped. Who is right? Whose side is he on and what should he do?

Kathrin Schrocke masterfully tackles the challenge of invisible privilege and empathy without pointing any fingers. In addition to the wonderful way in which White Tears raises awareness of important issues, it is really well-written and a great book.

Co-translation with Jennifer Busch. For foreign rights information, please contact Anja Mundt at mundt agency.

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Ausgefressen (Meerkat Mischief) by bestselling author Moritz Matthies is written proof that even Germans have a sense of humor. It is a satirical crime story set in an extraordinary environment: meerkat Ray's dreams come true when he gets to assist the messed-up (human!) private detective Phil.

Over 288 pages, Matthies uses his unique brand of humor to describe the complications of interpersonal relationships and social boundaries. His meerkat protagonists are cast with cheeky stereotypes (the cool guy, the nerd, the prole), and the characters' interactions, combined with their animalistic tendencies, form the basis for much of the novel's offbeat humor. However, Matthies' characters are far from two-dimensional. In the background, a critique of today's obsession with technology is woven in, as well as a subtle discourse on unconventional love. All of this is served up with a generous helping of biting dialogue, making for a fast-paced read that will have you laughing out loud.

Ausgefressen is the first part of a SPIEGEL bestseller series: almost 600,000 books and audiobooks (narrated by the multi-award-winning German actor Christoph Maria Herbst) have been sold to date from the eight titles.

Co-translation with Jennifer Busch. Foreign rights are held by S. Fischer Verlage.

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Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt (Robbie, Tobbie and the Flywatoot) is a classic, highly popular book by German bestselling author Boy Lornsen. The story is about the friendship between a boy and a robot. It was written in 1967 and wonderfully modernised by Günther Jakobs. To date, 250,000 copies have been sold worldwide.

Lornsen writes with enchanting ease and teases his characters with infectious warmth. Tobias Finteisen is an inventor in the fourth grade of elementary school. One night, he gets a visit from Robbie, a robot in the fourth grade of robot school. He hopes Tobbie doesn't mind, but after finding Tobbie's technical drawings for a “Flywatoot,” he just had to build it... And if Tobbie would be so kind, he could really use some help with his next tricky robot school assignments... Their adventures take them from sleepy Tütermoor across the big, wide ocean to Happy Matthias, the lighthouse keeper who hasn't taken a day off in thirty-five years, by dolphin tow to the Eskimos, then over to Scotland, to the Loch Ness monster and the mystery of Plumpudding Castle.

Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt was on the list for the German Youth Literature Prize in 1968 and has been made into a film twice, most recently in 2016.

Jennifer Busch and I were longlisted for the John Dryden Translation Competition 2022-23 for our co-translation of this reading sample. The foreign rights are held by Thienemann Verlage.

Translators Without Borders is a global community with over 100,000 members that helps people access important information and be heard, regardless of the language they speak.

During a period of reduced workload (long, long ago...), I worked on a project for SPARK. It was fun!

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