Jan Wagner's work delves into the subtle details and quiet moments of everyday life, exploring the boundaries of perception with keen precision. His style is marked by delicate imagery and a musicality that draws readers into a meditative examination of the world around them. Wagner's writing often navigates between concrete reality and its metaphorical extensions, opening new perspectives on seemingly ordinary things. His oeuvre represents a significant contribution to contemporary German literature, offering profound yet accessible reading experiences.
Self-Portrait with a Swarm of Bees, to be published in Arc's flagship translation series 'Visible Poets', combines the poet's unerring instinct for the surprising perspective on commonplace objects or events - plants, animals, landscapes- with a mischievous delight in the detail of the absurd, the precarious balance.
A young girl disappears while cycling to volleyball practice. Her bike is found in exactly the same place that another girl was murdered, thirty-three years before. Detective Kimmo Joentaa calls upon the help of his older colleague Jetola, who worked on the original murder, in the hope that they can solve both cases.
When a young woman dies peacefully in her sleep, her husband sits distraught at her side. Returning to his job at the Finland CID he finds that a murder inquiry is just beginning. A woman has been smothered while she slept and, as the case unfolds, others will be found having met death in the same eerily tranquil way.