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Anke Stelling was born in 1971, in Ulm, Germany. She studied at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig. Stelling is a multi-award-winning novelist whose previous works have been much acclaimed. Higher Ground is the first of her novels to be translated into English. Stelling lives and works in Berlin. Lucy Jones studied German at UEA with W.G. Sebald, and worked as a freelance photographer before becoming a translator. She has lived in Berlin since 1998, where she heads Transfiction, a translators’ collective, and runs the Fiction Canteen reading series. She translates literary fiction, art texts, plays, and journalism from German. Her latest translations include Blueprint, by Theresia Enzensberger, I Have No Regrets: diaries 1955—1963, by Brigitte Reimann, and The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, by Silke Scheuermann. She has published her own writing in SAND, Visual Verse, Pigeon Papers NY, and 3AM Magazine.<p>‘Stelling is brilliant on the quantum universe of parenting, the sheer unpredictability of it … The novel moves effortlessly between time periods in recent German history and builds up the composite picture of a generation that has too often seen many of its ideals disappear into trust funds … compelling.’</p>
- Michael Cronin, The Irish Times
<p>‘A bitterly funny and honest examination of what it means to look at oneself in the mirror and what happens to relationships in the midst of a transforming society.’</p>
Happy Magazine
<p>‘German author Anke Stelling makes her English language debut with a swingeing screed against the privilege and hypocrisy of those who sell their souls to get ahead … A merciless tirade of a novel about class, so energised by rage and wit it’s impossible to tear your eyes from the page.’</p>
- Cameron Woodhead, The Age
<p>‘Stelling makes a blistering English-language debut with this incendiary screed about hypocrisy and privilege among a group of friends in Berlin... This biting class critique is hard to turn away from.’</p>
Publishers Weekly
<p>‘It’s a fantastic translation, capturing Stelling’s candid, often ironic tone, as well as the narrator’s propensity for rhyme and wordplay. The book is very much embedded in the social landscape it’s set in, and so Jones’ decision to keep a flavour of the original German works particularly well.’</p>
- Annie Rutherford, Goethe Institute
<p>‘Stelling is down-to-earth and quick with her criticism of the liberal elite … There is a deep satisfaction in watching [main character] Resi defy expectation and norm, frustrating those who wish she would just be thankful.’</p>
- Connor Harrison, Necessary Fiction
<p>‘[A]n apologia pro vita mea… this sad, angry, and occasionally funny book works as a portrait of modern Germany and its social mores.’</p>
- Bethane Patrick, LitHub
<p>‘This is an extremely funny book. All credit to translator Lucy Jones here, for the humour is largely in the writing, with rhythms, bathos and the subversion of expectations all delivering laughs. Stelling is an expert on the ways human beings deceive themselves and how we often betray these lies unconsciously … <i>Higher Ground</i> is a deftly structured, ingenious piece of fiction … The result is a hugely entertaining, satisfying and thought-provoking novel. A really wonderful read.’</p>
- Ann Morgan, A Year of Reading the World
<p>‘<i>Higher Ground</i> is an absorbing novel that kept me interested from start to finish. Laced with dark humour, it’s very contemporary, skewering complacency and hypocrisy among the moneyed classes in Berlin … It’s often laugh-out-loud funny, and it’s often wise as well, even when she’s sending herself up.’</p>
- Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers