Grove

‘Grove is a realistic and humbling exploration of the all-encompassing nature of bereavement. Kinsky paints a striking picture, aided by Caroline Schmidt’s careful translation.’ —Lunate

‘[This] remarkable novel … demonstrate[s] that the many turns & returns of memory can become part of a “path” to “be on” – that, in other words, it is possible to move ahead precisely by circling back, to learn how to sow by remembering how to bury, & vice versa.’ —Alexander Sorenson, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Grove is a story of an existence stilled by loss, but the promise of life, & with it renewal & hope, pulses gently but steadily at its heart."—Lucy Scholes, Financial Times

An unnamed narrator, recently bereaved, travels to a small village southeast of Rome. It is winter, & from her temporary residence on a hill between village & cemetery, she embarks on walks & outings, exploring the banal & the sublime with equal dedication & intensity. Seeing, describing, naming the world around her is her way of redefining her place within it. In Kinsky's Grove, winner of the 2018 Leipzig Book Prize, grief must bear the weight of the world & full of grief the narrator becomes one with the brittle manifestations of the Italian winter.

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Esther Kinsky grew up by the river Rhine & lived in London for 12 years. She is the author of 3 volumes of poetry & 2 novels, including River, & has translated many notable English (John Clare, Henry David Thoreau, Lewis Grassic Gibbon) & Polish (Miron Białoszewski, Zygmunt Haupt, Ida Fink, Olga Tokarczuk) authors into German. Grove is the winner of the 2018 Leipzig Book Prize. Seeing Further is her 4th book published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.

Caroline Schmidt was born in Princeton. She translated Esther Kinsky’s Grove, & has translated poetry by Friederike Mayröcker, & art historical essays, museum catalogues & exhibition texts for Albertina in Vienna & Pinakothek der Moderne in