We are thrilled to have secured the English translation rights to “Das Deutsche Krokodil written by Ijoma Mangold and originally published in Germany in 2017 by Rowolt Verlag.
Ijoma Alexander Mangold is one of Germany’s leading literary critics and this is his reflective and compelling memoir of growing up different – both in terms of his ethnicity and his interests - in 1970s Heidelberg, in the USA as the German Wall fell, and as a young adult in the new Germany. His own story is inextricably linked with that of his mother, an ethnic German from the eastern province of Silesia, forced to escape as a refugee in the expulsions from 1944, and to start afresh in utter poverty in West Germany. His Nigerian father came to Germany as a medical student but returned before Ijoma was old enough to remember him. When he reappears on the scene in Ijoma’s early twenties, it forces a crash collision with an unknown culture, one he has grown up always suspicious of, and a new complex family history to come to terms with. This fascinating memoir explores many questions experienced in his young years in a country where he was often referred to as a “Mischling” or “Mulatte.” How does it feel to grow up without a father? What is the relationship between class and race? And what is more likely to garner someone suspicion in Germany: having brown skin or developing a passion for Thomas Mann and Richard Wagner? Mangold's path to becoming one of Germany's leading arts critics makes for stimulating reading not only for what it says about modern Germany but also what it shows us about the interplay of race and class more universally. Photo Credit © Sebastian Hänel
Ijoma Mangold was born in Heidelberg in 1971 and studied literature and philosophy in Munich and Bologna. After working for the newspapers Berliner Zeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung, he moved to the weekly Die Zeit in 2009, where he was literary editor from 2013 to 2018. He is now Die Zeit's cultural correspondent. He is one of four critics for the SWR television programme, Lesenswert. Mangold lives in Berlin.
We are delighted to be working with translator Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp supported by grants from English PEN and the Goethe Institut. Ruth has a degree in German literature and has studied many of the classics to which Mangold makes frequent reference, including Thomas Mann and Theodor Fontane. Ruth's translation of Ulrich Raulff's Farewell to the Horse was named Sunday Times history book of the year, and her lyrical translation, described as 'scintillating reading ' by The Observer, was shortlisted for the 2019 Helen & Kurt Wolff Prize for Translation from German. Her experience of translating critical texts on music and art, and her thorough knowledge of German history and politics, make her well prepared for conveying to English readers the cultural context that imbues Ijoma Mangold's very personal memoir.
Join Sarah Hemens, Gersy Ifeanyi Ejimofo and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp on International Translation Day and on the eve of the UK publication of THE GERMAN CROCODILE as they discuss the journey of translating and publishing this work.
To listen, click HERE on 30th September 2021 @ 7pm
The German Crocodile by Ijoma Mangold is available to pre-order HERE
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