My Grandmother's Braid

Description

Sharp and tender at once, a humourous take on family dysfunction and human weakness seen through a young boy's eyes. Max lives with his grandparents in a residential home for refugees in Germany. When his grandmother-a terrifying, stubborn matriarch and a former Russian primadonna-moved them from the Motherland, it was in search of a better life. But she is not at all pleased with how things are run in Germany. His grandmother has been telling Max that he is an incompetent, clueless weakling since he was a child. While he may be dolt in his grandmother's eyes, Max is bright enough to notice that his stoic and taciturn grandfather has fallen hopelessly in love with their neighbour, Nina. When a child is born to Nina that is the spitting image of Max's grandfather, things come to a hilarious if dramatic head. Everybody will have to learn to defend themselves from Max's all-powerful grandmother.

Alina Bronksy is the author of Broken Glass Park (Europa, 2010); The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine (Europa, 2011), named a Best Book of 2011 by The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, and Publishers Weekly; Just Call Me Superhero (Europa, 2014), and Baba Dunja's Last Love (Europa, 2016), shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Born in Yekaterinburg, Bronsky lives in Berlin. Tim Mohr is an award-winning translator of authors such Wolfgang Herrndorf, Charlotte Roche, and four books by Alina Bronsky. He has also collaborated on memoirs by musicians Gil Scott-Heron, Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses, and Paul Stanley of KISS. He is the author of Burning Down the Haus, a history of political struggle and punk music in East Germany. Prior to starting his writing career, he earned his living as a club DJ in Berlin.

"Irony, subtle humor, fascinating characters. A book that, after you finish it, you immediately want to start to read again." * Stuttgarter Zeitung * "Uplifting, surprising, spot on." * NDR Radio *