News from Berlin, by Otto de Kat, translated by Ina Rilke

I love it when a book that’s on my wishlist waves at me from the new books shelves at the library!  There it was, News from Berlin which Grant at 1st Reading had so enticingly reviewed, so of course I brought it home.  And read it straight away because it’s only just over 200 pages long and I couldn’t put it down.

Otto de Kat is the pen name of Dutch author, publisher, critic and poet Jan Geurt Gaarlandt.  The book jacket tells me that his award-winning novels have been widely published throughout Europe and Man on the Move (2009) was the winner of  Holland’s Halewijn Literature Prize. News from Berlin is translated by Ina Rilke who also translated two books by noted Dutch author Hella Haase that I have read, so I knew the translation would be good.

And it is.  The translation is excellent.  News from Berlin is…