Gabriele Tergit: Something Altogether Rare

Gabriele Tergit
Something Altogether Rare

memoir/biography

320pp

>>The autobiography of a critical Jewish journalist and writer

Gabriele Tergit (1894-1982), the Jewish intellectual, journalist and writer, is certainly among the most remarkable and courageous women of the twentieth century. As the first female court reporter in the 1920s, she was particularly interested in the human stories and motivations behind the actions of the accused. For her, court cases were a mirror of society, and even in apparently insignificant cases she recognised the major problems and issues of her epoch. Her novel Käsebier Takes Berlin (1931), a contemporary diagnosis of the late Weimar Republic, made her famous as a novelist.

An observant social critic with a sharp eye, Gabriele Tergit didn’t shy away from discussing Nazism in her reporting. After barely evading arrest by the SA in 1933, she fled Germany for Palestine and subsequently lived in London as an exile.

Her extraordinary autobiography SOMETHING ALTOGETHER RARE first appeared in 1983, one year after her death, in a heavily altered edition. It is now available for the first time in a carefully edited new edition.

Rights sold

first serial - Literarische Welt
paperback - Random House / btb

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Reviews

»Tergit's memories show a clever, courageous woman full of wit and a profound understanding of human nature. (...) She takes her readers very seriously, demands their attention, steers clear of worn-out phrases and emotional routines.«
Jens Bisky, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»Of enormous immediacy and liveliness. (...) Books like this bring to life times long gone.«
Tobias Rüther, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung

»Interwoven with political analysis, blended with memories of her encounters with 'book people' like Peter Suhrkamp and personal correspondences. (...) It's also an irreconcilable summary of her time.«
Susanne Mayer, Die ZEIT

»In her sometimes witty and torn language, Tergit’s memories read like a mosaic of troubled times. (...) An encounter with the riddles of the twentieth century shaped by totalitarian violence.«
Till Greite, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»A crystal clear view, a sparkling spirit.«
Joachim Scholl, Deutschlandfunk Kultur

»An unvaluable, colourful document, (…) polemical and partial, and very alert. A rare example of ambitious literary journalism – just ›something altogether rare.‹«
Harald Loch, Jüdische Allgemeine

»Tergit is more of a reporter and observer of her time than an autobiographer. She prefers to write about friends and colleagues rather than about herself, creating impressive images.«
Nadine Lange, Tagesspiegel

»A brilliantly edited and annotated new edition.«
Wilfried Mommert, Schwäbische Zeitung

»As a smart and socially critical observer, she realized early the increasing destabilization of political conditions.«
Nicole Hoffmann, Missy Magazine

»The lively and interesting memoir of a remarkable woman and her not-so-ordinary life.«
Sabine Roeske, ekz

More titles by Gabriele Tergit

Gabriele Tergit: The Old GardenGabriele Tergit: The Happy GardenerGabriele Tergit: Käsebier Takes BerlinGabriele Tergit: The EffingersGabriele Tergit: Of Spring and LonelinessGabriele Tergit: That’s How it WasGabriele Tergit: The First Train to Berlin