Ashes for Breakfast

The first English translation of Germany's leading contemporary poet.

...what is the whole surreal jokeshop

of terrors compared to the

infinitely chance little

tricks of a poem.

--from "MonoLogical Poem #1"

Born in Dresden in 1962, Durs Grünbein is the most significant and successful poet to emerge from the former East Germany, a place where, he wrote, "the best refuge was a closed mouth." In unsettling, often funny, sometimes savage lines whose vivid images reflect his deep love for and connection with the visual arts, Grunbein is reinventing German poetry and taking on the most pressing moral concerns of his generation. Brilliantly edited and translated by the English poet Michael Hofmann, Ashes for Breakfast expertly introduces Germany's most highly acclaimed contemporary poet to American readers.