The Bars of Atlantis

“American readers who'd like not to be caught off guard the next time the Nobel goes out to the German-speaking world (Elfriede who? Herta what?) may do well to acquaint themselves with the work of Durs Grünbein. I can think of nowhere better to start than The Bars of Atlantis, a book of essays every bit as vibrant, witty, erudite, and awe-inspiring as Grünbein's incomparable poetry.” —Jeffrey Eugenides

“What was it in Grünbein that so seized my attention? It was the sardonic humor, the savagery, the violent candor-all expressed in lines of cool formal elegance. In Grünbein's pages, uncontrollable feeling encounters the at first invisible control of an expert technique, creating that exciting 'deadlock' of equally strong matter and manner that Robert Frost in his Notebooks found essential to poetry.” —Helen Vendler, The New Republic with praise for Ashes for Breakfast

“Ashes for Breakfast is a brilliantly layered book . . . Grünbein's poems read as if the forces of history pressing in on the present drove them into this world.” —Melanie Rehak, The New York Times Book Review with praise for Ashes for Breakfast

“Durs Grünbein is one of the most intelligent poets writing in German today. His subject is nothing less than ‘this life, so useless, so rich.' It is wonderful to have his selected poems in Michael Hofmann's note-perfect translation.” —John Ashbery with praise for Ashes for Breakfast

“Durs Grünbein is a highly original poet, an heir to the riches of German and European Modernism. What's striking in this poetry is a hard, almost cynical tone which turns out to be just a lid on a jar containing many substances.” —Adam Zagajewski with praise for Ashes for Breakfast

“Grünbein is a vital new voice in the world of poetry . . . Like Joseph Brodsky, to whom he is often compared, he is a serious and focused poet whose work has a depth that deserves our attention.” —David Hellman, San Francisco Chronicle with praise for Ashes for Breakfast