He is mainly known for children books. I am almost sure that every child in Germany knows and loves Erich Kästner´s stories “Emil and the Detectives”, “Pünktchen and Anton”, or “The flying classroom“ – even today.

He is also the author of “Das doppelte Lottchen”, a book about identical twins, separated by their divorced parents at birth who meet in a summer camp as ten year olds for the first time and decide to swap roles to meet the other parent. Sounds familiar? It’s the original source behind the Disney film “Parent Trap”.

He wrote one major adult novel in Germany called “Fabian”, which was published in 1931. The English version is called “Going to the dogs: the story of a moralist”.

The book plays in post WW I Berlin and describes the life of Jakob Fabian, an unemployed moralist and intellectual who strolls through the city looking for work and friends. He meets people with different experiences, traumas and expectations of life trying to find their way around in the post-war times where values and morals sometimes seem to fade.

A great book that is not outdated and definitely recommended.

Do you know any of Erich Kästner´s books? Which one would you recommend?

The post A blacklisted author – Erich Kästner appeared first on Hey there world.

Germany has many authors and one of those many famous ones is Hermann Hesse.

He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1946. That alone should be a reason to read at least one of his amazing books.

Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, the Glass Bead Game, or Narcissus and Goldmund. I love all of them – but if you have to pick one, then I would say Narcissus and Goldmund.

He was also an amazing poet. My favourite poem is called Stufen – Steps. He wrote it after recovering from a disease in spring 1941. It capture his thoughts around life being a continuous process.

In all of his works he deals with the essential questions around spirituality and authenticity – and that´s what made him famous all around the world.

Great literature for cold autumn evenings on the couch. I promise you will enjoy it!

Have you read some of his work? If so, what do you think? And what about your culture – who is a must-read author that you would recommend to all of us?

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