Der Literarische Salon mit Anne Weber

More than almost any other work of contemporary literature, the books of the German writer and Parisian-by-choice Anne Weber are characterised not only by the search for a story that can be told, but also by a recherche de style, for a form that is unique and only suits this very material. A literary polish that, incidentally, also distinguishes her grandiose, much-praised translations from French. If in "August" she had fashioned the story of Goethe's son as a puppet show hanging on the strings of his famous father, with her novel "Annette" she renews the heroic epic, indeed creates the heroine epic. Her books are journeys of discovery in this double sense, whether they ask about ancestors, about origins, about what constitutes political action or love, or even about the narrative self. Anne Weber was awarded the German Book Prize last year for her most political novel. The fact that in the digital age she is bringing the old, almost forgotten tradition of the verse epic onto the bestseller lists is one of the strangest and most beautiful capers of the literary business.