Uwe Timm was born in Germany in 1940. Just three years later his brother, Karl-Heinz, who was sixteen years his senior and a sapper in the elite SS Death's Head Division, was killed. His notebook was returned to the family, and the last entry read- 'I close my diary here because I don't see any point in recording the cruel things that sometimes happen.' When Timm decided to write this astonishing memoir, he feared the possibility that his brother's unit had taken part in the shooting of civilians and Jews. Yet he wanted to piece together his brother's experience, and also that of his nation, which once considered the qualities of an SS man so exemplary. As Timm unleashes his memories of this devastating time, he also pinpoints the questions that his parents' generation seemed unable to face, and offers new insights into the impact of the war on ordinary Germans.

A gripping historical novel about colonial power and tribal rebellion, set in German-occupied Southwest Africa. Uwe Timm (Headhunter, The Invention of Curried Sausage) has been described in The New Yorker as "an extraordinary storyteller." In this early novel, he focuses his narrative talents on the historical conflict between German colonists and African tribes under the leadership of the legendary Morenga in the first decade of the 20th century. A daring and brilliant military tactician, Morenga was fluent in several languages and by all reports a man of compassion, intelligence, and integrity, as he led his people towards freedom. Recounted through the eyes of Gottschalk, an engaging fictional military veterinarian, the narrative blends quotations from historical sources with actual accounts of everyday life and military excursions. The parallels between past events and later German history, with its notions of the Untermensch (subhuman beings) and racial inferiority, are subtly brought to mind, while significant philosophical, political, and human issues are at play. Morenga is an intriguing novel of scope and significance, and it has been well served by Breon Mitchell's prize-winning translation.

An amusing and cautionary tale of one summer solstice night in Berlin.

Here is what German author/narrator Uwe Timm uncovers about a popular German sidewalk food, curried sausage. Convinced the delicacy did not originate in Berlin, Timm tracks down its creator, one Lena Brucker, now living in a retirement home. Thus the tale of how curried sausage came to be is the romantic story of Lena Brucker's life.

A renowned German novelist's memoir of his brother, who joined the SS and was killed at the Russian front. Uwe Timm was only two years old when in 1942 his older brother, Karl Heinz, announced to his family he had volunteered for service with an elite squadron of the German army, the SS Totenkopf Division, also known as Death's Heads. Little more than a year later Karl Heinz was injured in battle at the Russian front, his legs amputated, and a few weeks after that he died in a military hospital. To their father, Karl Heinz's death only served to immortalize him as the courageous one, the obedient one, the one who upheld the family honor. His childhood was marked by the mythology of his brother's lost life; his absence-the hole he left in the family-just as palpable as if he were still alive. His mother's sadness and his father's rage over the loss of Karl Heinz ultimately defined Uwe's relationship with his parents. But while they eulogized the boy, Uwe wondered: who really had his brother been? The life and death of his older brother has haunted Uwe Timm for more than sixty years. His parents' silence was one of the most painful aspects of his family history. Not even after the war ended, and details of unspeakable horrors emerged, did his parents ever acknowledge Germany's guilt and Karl Heinz's role in it. They simply said: We didn't know. After the deaths of his parents and older sister Timm set out in search of answers. Using military reports, letters, family photos and cryptic entries from a diary his brother kept during the war, he began to piece together the picture, discovering his brother's story is not just that of one man, but the tragedy of an entire generation. In the Shadow of My Brother is a meditation on German history and guilt, one that is both nuanced and measured.

After running over an Acaray snake in South America, Wagner's luck changes and he becomes engulfed in a web of mayhem.

The first thing to be said about Uwe Timm's novel Headhunter, as every one of the many outstanding reviews on its publication in Germany noted, is that it is a thoroughly engrossing book - "gripping and entertaining from beginning to end" (FAZ). The second thing is that Timm, with a wonderfully light and precise touch, has created a multi-layered, multi-faceted book that addresses the times we live in and, most particularly, the role of money and the financial cannibalism of recent years. The narrator Peter Walter is a charmer, a master storyteller who has used that skill to siphon off millions from clients hoping to strike it rich on the commodities market. Escaping to Spain on the day his trial verdict is to come down, he intends to devote himself to his hobby, study of Easter Island. But a detective is on the trail of the missing millions, and Walter's uncle, an established author, is planning to use Walter's life story in a novel. Walter sets out to write his own intriguing autobiography - from his childhood in Hamburg's red-light district to his success in the world of high finance.

"Mr. Kaufman has a genuine lyric talent, and his poetry is sensuous, exciting, and charged with vitality." —Publishers Weekly The Ancient Rain: Poems 1956-1978 is San Francisco poet Bob Kaufman’s third collection and his first to be published since the late 1960s. One of the original Beat poets (the coinage "beatnik" is his), Kaufman’s work has always been essentially improvisational, often done to jazz accompaniment. And he became something of a legendary figure at the poetry readings in the early days of the San Francisco renaissance of the 1950s. With his extemporaneous technique, akin in many ways to Surrealist automatic writing, he has produced a body of work ranging from a visionary lyricism infused with satirical, almost Dadaistic elements to a prophetic poetry of political and social protest. Born in New Orleans of mixed Black and Jewish parentage, Kaufman was one of fourteen children. During twenty years in the Merchant Marine, he cultivated an intense taste for literature on his long sea voyages. Settling in California, in the ’50s, he became active in the burgeoning West Coast literary scene. Disappointment, drugs, and imprisonment led him to take a ten-year vow of complete silence that lasted until 1973. The present volume includes previously uncollected poems written prior to his pledge and newer work composed in the years 1973-1978, before the poet once again lapsed into silence.

Join an incredible mynah bird on and adventure as he makes his way in the big city.