Paulus Böhmer: Kaddish I-X

Hölty Poetry Award

Paulus Böhmer
Kaddish I-X

poetry

250pp (60,600 words)

»The poet Paulus Böhmer, solitary amongst his ilk, a kind of filigree grizzly bear of poetry.«
Eva Demski

Paulus Böhmer, the »German poet with the largest vocabulary by far« (Christoph Meckel), presents his opus magnum in KADDISH I-X, a cycle of long poems, over a decade in the making, a lyrical major work, the like of which has long since not been seen in the German language – a literary event, a poetic inventory of the world no less.

KADDISH I-X is a universal song, a torrent of words that joins the never-uttered to the everyday, philosophical abstraction to erotic obsession, the conscious to the unconscious.

Reviews

»Rhapsodic like the poetry of Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg, and materialistic like Baudelaire’s lyrics.«
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»Paulus Böhmer is the most interesting poet of postmodernism.«
Die Literarische Welt

»What renders this poetry so unique within the German-speaking sphere is precisely not a universal negation and depression, but an albeit often bitter dedication to life. Corresponding to this on the material side is a distinct draw to rich abundance. In aesthetics that which fuels desire is referred to as beauty. Böhmer’s style of poetry is a lengthy, certainly furious, decidedly mournful, but consistently rushingly beautiful song. ‘The gods create hardship to give people something to sing about’ as Homer says.«
Alban Nikolai Herbst

»What makes his poetry this exceptional in the German-speaking world is not world-negation and depression but its often bitter devotion to life. (...) Böhmer’s poetry is a long - obviously angry, sometimes sad - always beautifully flowing chant. (...) The pathos of his verse irritates the calmed ones. It tears up distances. Böhmer directly soaks himself into the things, beings, creatures. «
Vorfreude

More titles by Paulus Böhmer

Paulus Böhmer: FuchsleuchtenPaulus Böhmer: Kaddish XI-XXI