Amina Pandolfi Books

The Tongue Set Free is the first volume in Elias Canetti's three-volume autobiography. Translated from the German by Joachim Neugroschel.

As spring comes to Scotland and the hills burst into life, a dance is planned for September. The invitations summon home the group of people Violet Aird has cared for most in her long life. The oldest, strongest and wisest of them all, she sees Alexa, her vulnerable granddaughter, find love for the first time, while the decision to send her little grandson away to school is driving parents Edmund and Virginia even further apart. Far from them all is Pandora, the glamorous, exciting girl who ran away twenty years before. All will converge on Scotland this September.

Small, fat Bastian Balthazar Bux is nobody's idea of a hero, least of all his own, until he finds himself stepping through the pages of a mysterious book into the world of Fantastica! Age 9+ 148 pages

Ingeborg Bachmann veröffentlichte 1972 mit "Simultan" ihren zweiten Erzählungsband, der ihre letzte Buchveröffentlichung seit dem Ende der sechziger Jahre parallel zu den Arbeiten am "Todesarten" Projekt war. Mit diesem haben sie das Thema der von der Männergesellschaft verletzten, im Leben behinderten Frau gemeinsam. In der umfangreichsten Erzählung des Bandes, "Drei Wege zum See," findet sich denn auch der vorläufig abschliessende Satz sum Patriarchat: "...solange es diesen Neuen Mann nicht gab, konnte man nur freundlich sein und gut zueinander, eine Weile. Mehr war nicht daraus zu machen, und es sollten die Frauen und die Männer am besten Abstand halten..."

Some authors tell tragic stories with humor, as Heinrich Böll does in his novel "The Clown." This work narrates in the first person the life of Hans Schnier, an apolitical and agnostic young clown who faces a series of adversities: his career collapses, his health and spirits wane, and he finds himself alone in a hotel with few resources and friends. The situation worsens when his wife, Marie, leaves him, prompting him to reflect on his life and the reasons behind their separation. Böll places Schnier in a post-war Germany, marked by rigid social morals and ecclesiastical hypocrisy that he critiques through his protagonist. Throughout the novel, Schnier shares his thoughts, memories, and conversations in search of support, often clashing with euphemistic individuals. Böll, a fervent Catholic and Nobel Prize winner in Literature, portrays the complexity of the clown's existence, showing that behind laughter can lie a life full of suffering. His melancholic, ironic, and raw style invites reflection on the duality between appearance and reality.

Sitting on a California beach at summer's end, Jane Marsh thinks back to her childhood at the estate called Elvie in a remote corner of Scotland. She remembers not only the heather-covered hills and the lonesome loch, but her grandmother . . . and, of course, Sinclair. She has secretly dreamed of marrying rakishly handsome Sinclair and settling at Elvie forever. Then an urgent visit from her grandmother's lawyer becomes the catalyst for her return to Scotland . . . Where waiting for her is passion, not gentle love, and the chilling realisation that she may be ready to wed the wrong man.