Wolf Haas, Wackelkontakt – translated by Jamie Bulloch

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Wackelkontakt by Wolf Haas, 2026. A good read. Here’s the English blurb:

A clever, electrifying puzzle of a novel, inspired by MC Escher’s optical illusions, in which two mirrored plots—a man waiting for an electrician and a mafia informant entering witness protection—delightfully converge.

Franz Escher is waiting for the electrician. His power outlet has a loose connection. To pass the time, he buries himself in a book about a Mafioso-turned-informant Elio Russo. Elio is in jail, awaiting his imminent release into witness protection. He has betrayed so many people that he fears for his life. Unable to sleep, he lies awake at night reading a book about a man named Franz Escher who’s waiting for the electrician. His power outlet has a loose connection. . .

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Wolf Suschitzky and Libris bookshop

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Talk  by Julia Winckler on Wolfgang Suschitzky – life and photography. Father founded a social-democratic bookshop in Vienna. His sister, Edith Tudor-Hart, was a photographer too. She died at the age of 64, whereas Wolf was 104 when he died. Edith was also involved in recruiting Soviet spies, including the Cambridge Spy ring, and eventually photographed less as she was constantly being followed by MI5.

Wolfgang went to London in 1934 but could not earn anything from photography till 1938, when he was given a work permit.

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Samuel Beckett German Diaries 1936-1937

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Samuel Beckett German Diaries published by Suhrkamp, English (lots of German terms in it) with German translation. Leseprobe. Übersetzung von Gaby Hartel
Herausgegeben von Mark Nixon und Oliver Lubrich

Guardian article 

I have borrowed Nixon’s book about this project, Samuel Beckett’s German Diaries 1936-1937, 2011, but someone else wants it so I will return it. Nixon the editor, professor of English at Reading University, also compares Beckett’s approach to Germany with Isherwood’s “I am a camera”. Beckett listens

like a fool to 2 hours of Hitler & an hour of Goering (opening of Reichstag. Goering reelected President, laws controlling 4 years plan extended for another 4…the usual from A.H. with announcement of a 20 yr. plan for development of Berlin, ‘rely’ to Eden consisting mainly in repeated assertion that Germany’s policy is not one of isolation; then Goering announcing foundation of 3 years ‘cultural’ prices of 100,000 ? RM & prohibition imposed on any Germans to accept a Nobel Prize

(January 1937)

 

German breadcutting

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A clip of a German cutting a “super accurate” slice of “very hard” bread has gone viral.

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DZeqv5_qHpP/

The reaction of some colleagues was “Why don’t they use a bread cutting machine?”

Years ago German bakeries would ask if you wanted the bread cut in a machine. I always said no. No need to let it dry out.

But who else remembers the times when a German woman (usually) would buy a huge loaf of bread and hold it against her waist to cut an even slice? Here’s the first example I found.

Here’s the Wired article in this connection.