Women and Clothes by Brigitte Kronauer

Translated by Jutta Ittner

Women and Clothes (Die Kleider der Frauen, 2009), a collection of stories arranged chronologically around a single unifying motif, has been praised by critics as a wonderful and surprising novel. The stories are deeply anchored in society while mirroring its constant flux and the ways in which clothes express - and conversely affect - a woman's sense of self from the cradle to the grave and beyond. Each story adds one more layer, facet, perspective, or color to the complex relationship women develop with their apparel and with themselves. Women and Clothes is a poignant and hilarious postmodern Bildungsroman that explores the external manifestations, the interior tensions, the seismic shifts, and the underlying fears and desires that determine the formation of female identity.

Praise for Brigitte Kronauer and Women and Clothes:

Kronauer, a prolific German writer of fiction and essays who has received many honors, offers language that is wonderfully stripped of unnecessary platitudes and transitions. She... keeps us riveted with her dynamic language and dedication to detail. Evocative and timeless, Kronauer's writing will attract many generations.

– ForeWord

Brigitte Kronauer... is a unique phenomenon in the German-language literature of today. What she does nobody else does... transforming the blink of an eye into a gleaming moment and holding it securely - in fact, she has established her own school of perception which teaches the second glance, the penetrating one that seeks the essential behind appearances.

– Otto A. Böhmer, Wiener Zeitung

Brigitte Kronauer is the greatest German female writer of our time. Her work will feature in Germany's future literary history.

– Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Germany's leading literary critic

In units that vary delightfully in length, tone, perspective and focus, Brigitte Kronauer... constructs a work of fiction that manages to encompass both unity and diversity, short story and novel. The individual pieces are engrossing, flecked with humor and insight, and they add up to a sum that is greater than its parts. All this suppleness of method and accomplishment is extremely well served by a translation that is alert to nuance and detail, colloquialisms and slang, syntax and voice. Jutta Ittner brings this notable writer to an English-speaking audience with unmistakable authority and consistent success. [Her] translation of Women and Clothes is wonderfully lively and playful.

– David Young, translator, poet, and critic

Brigitte Kronauer (b. 1940) is one of Germany's most highly acclaimed contemporary writers. With more than twenty-five volumes of stories, novels, and criticism, she has established herself as a uniquely sophisticated literary voice and earned numerous honors. In her fiction she explores the complexities of human relations with empathy and zest, exposing human foibles with subtle irony and an exquisite sense of humor. Beneath its everyday surface, her fiction deals with the eternal human questions of life, death, and love.

8.5" x 5.5"
139 pages