One of the benefits of the world's biggest book fair is that you get to listen to all kind of fascinating stories. By which I don't mean the book fair gossip, though that's mildly entertaining. Sometimes annoying and sexist as well. I'll later given an example for the later, but first the most interesting bits from the last two exhausting days:

a) The reading by Mo Yan, from two of his novels, Die Sandelholzstrafe and Der Überdruss. (Again, no idea what the English titles are - considering Mo Yan is the most famous of the Chinese novelists visiting the fair, theyare bound to exist, but I don't have the time to check.) This was done, as all readings, Q & A's and debates with Chinese authors and scholars on the fair, via translators. (Usually the translators translate near simultanous and are sitting in a booth; as translations into German and English - and Mandarin, for the Chinese - are available, the book fair looks a but U.N.-ish right now. They didn't go to that much effort when the Indians were there, presumably because most of them read and spoke in English, which everyone speaks anyway.) He read two excerpts, and first an actress and then the translator of Der Überdruss read the same excerpts in the German versions. This was a fascinating opportunity to compare word melody for someone like me who doesn't speak Chinese, plus everyone could actually recite really well. (Not a given for readings.) Then there were the text excerpts; one was an animal pov, which is Mo Yan's specialty, and one was the start of the novel describing the set up, the hero who has been shot refusing to submit to the unjust underworld judgement of the demons, continuing his refusal despite being bullied and tortured (this was such an explicit metaphor for a show trial, btw, that I was amazed Mo Yan got the novel published) until they let him go and reincarnate near his old family - but as a mule. The excerpts were all very funny in a black humour way, had a rhythm that was downright catchy, and Mo Yan kept up the humour when talking about the writing. He held up the rather slim volume of his original novel, then the really large and heavy German translation and asked his translator, "Martina, have you added romances? Because my critics claim I can't write them, and so you may have improved me!" He also said that usually he takes much longer but he wrote this particular novel in 43 days ("after having thought about it 43 years"), and by hand, not with the computer as opposed to the others - by brush, no less. He said the sensation of brush on paper really helps with the writing. There were a lot of Chinese in the audience, and they asked questions later. They were standard reading questions, but I noticed the formality of the address (as rendered by the translator, anyway). It was always "hochverehrter Herr Mo Yen" - "very honored Mr. Mo Yen" - which sounds more fluent in German, though also old fashioned.

b) The presentation of the biography of Leopold Engleitner, who is 104 years old and a concentration camp survivor. He was present, though most of the presentation was done by his biographer, Bernhard Rammersdorfer; Mr. Engleitner sat in a wheelchair and looked a bit like a very fragile wood elf, talking in caustic Austrian dialect. He's a Jehova's witness, which was the reason for his arrest and captivity in three different concentration camps - Buchenwald, one whose name I'm blanking out on right now, and Ravensbruck. By the end of the war, he was weighing only 28 kilogramms. What I found most sad was the fact that his parents (conservative Austrians deeply embarassed their son left the church and went to the witnesses of Jehovah anyway) didn't want to hide him; most incredible that he did not appear to be bitter. Asked by Bernhard Rammersdorfer whether he had an explanation for reaching such an old age he said because he enjoyed most of his life ("hat mei Freud dran"); I felt awed and humbled.

From the historic, human and humane to the everyday trivia: some bits of book fair gossip:

- apparantly German book trade is doing business as usual, but everyone says the Americans made severe cut backs; a greatly reduced presence, far fewer agents, and several publishers switched completely to non-fiction

- most annoying joke at one of the few receptions that did take place as follows. To appreciate the background: Horst Lauinger is the head of Manesse publishing; Manesse publishes classic literature (read: anything older than a century). Joachim Unseld heads the Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt; he's also the son of the late Siegfried Unseld, legendary publisher of Suhrkamp, and was expected to take over Suhrkamp until S. Unseld got divorced and married Ulla Berkowicz, which resulted in a severe father/son falling out, which resulted in Ulla Berkowicz basically inheriting Suhrkamp and making herself the most unpopular person in Frankfurt by deciding to move the publishing house to Berlin. (And by other decisions, that's just the latest one.) So, at Joachim Unseld's reception, Horst Lauinger declared himself the luckiest of publishers: "Because my authors are so old that they don't have any bloody widows to trouble us." You know, I actually have a lot of sympathy for J.U., but I don't like cheap jokes about widows, and you hear them on every single fair sooner or later. How artist's widows should just be burned, etc., etc. Bah.

I'm really worn out by now - a week of browsing, listening and debating will do that to you, and it's not over yet - but have a growing list of books I want to buy or lend from someone else really badly, like always this time of the year. Today's most interesting browsed-through novel was about two women, who travelled as fairground attractions in the 19th century, "the ugliest woman in the world" and a pretty young girl named Rosie the "owner"/agent added to give the audience a kick by the physical contrast. I also liked a novel about Caterina de' Medici and a non-fiction book by Tom Holland called "Millennium" about Europe in the century leading up to and immediately after the year 1000 AD, which came across was entertaining and very well researched.

Now off to try and catch up online...