You Should Have Left: Daniel Kehlmann, Eric Banks and Ross Benjamin

Deutsches Haus at NYU and NYU's Department of German present a reading by Daniel Kehlmann from his novella "You Should Have Left" (Penguin Random House 2017) and a conversation between the author, Eric Banks, the director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, and Ross Benjamin, the literary translator who translated "You Should Have Left."
December 4th, 2017

"It is fitting that I'm beginning a new notebook up here. New surroundings and new ideas, a new beginning. Fresh air."

This passage is from the first entry of a journal kept by the narrator of Daniel Kehlmann's spellbinding new novel. It is the record of the seven days that he, his wife, and his four-year-old daughter spend in a house they have rented in the mountains of Germany--a house that thwarts the expectations of the narrator's recollection and seems to defy the very laws of physics. He is eager to finish a screenplay for a sequel to the movie that launched his career, but something he cannot explain is undermining his convictions and confidence, a process he is recording in this account of the uncanny events that unfold as he tries to understand what, exactly, is happening around him--and within him.

Daniel Kehlmann is the Eberhard Berent Goethe Chair at NYU's Department of German. Kehlmann has been honored with numerous awards, including the Candide-Preis (2005), Kleist-Preis (2006), Heimito von Doderer-Preis (2006), WELT-Literaturpreis (2007), Per-Olov-Enquis-Preis (2008), Thomas-Mann-Preis (2008), Prix Cévennes du roman européen (2010), and most recently the Nestroy-Theaterpreis (2012). His publications include the novels "Tyll" (2017), "Du hättest gehen sollen" (2016), "F" (2013), "Ruhm" (2009), "Die Vermessung der Welt" (2005), and "Ich und Kaminski" (2003) as well as the books of essays "Kommt, Geister" (2014), "Lob" (2010), and "Wo ist Carlos Montufar?" (2005). Daniel Kehlmann lives in New York and Berlin.

Eric Banks is the director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU. Formerly a senior editor of Artforum and editor in chief of Bookforum, Banks has contributed to a range of publications, including the New York Times Book Review, the Financial Times, Slate, the Wall Street Journal, Aperture, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, and this past year he served as chair of the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. Banks has also worked as an editorial consultant on numerous visual arts catalogues and collections of artists writings, including the catalogue raisonne of Ellsworth Kelly.

Ross Benjamin is a literary translator living in Nyack, New York. He received a 2015 Guggen­heim Fellowship for his work on Franz Kafka’s Diaries. His previous translations include Fried­rich Hölderlin’s Hyperion, Kevin Vennemann’s Close to Jedenew, Joseph Roth’s Job, Thomas Pletzinger’s Funeral for a Dog, and Clemens J. Setz’s Indigo. He was awarded the 2010 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize for his ren­dering of Michael Maar’s Speak, Nabokov and a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow­ship. He was a 2003–2004 Fulbright Scholar.

“You Should Have Left": A Conversation between Daniel Kehlmann, Eric Banks, and Ross Benjamin is a DAAD-sponsored event.

Video recording and editing: laiacabrera.com/company

Видео You Should Have Left: Daniel Kehlmann, Eric Banks and Ross Benjamin канала Deutsches Haus