Timm, Uwe 1940–

PERSONAL: Born March 30, 1940, in Hamburg, Germany; son of Hans and Anna (Steyskal) Timm; married Dagmar Ploetz (a journalist), November 13, 1969; children: Tobias, Bettina, Johanna. Education: University of Munich, D.Phil.; attended Sorbonne, University of Paris.

ADDRESSES: Home—Germany. Agent—Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Rondorfer Straße 5, Cologne 50968, Germany.

CAREER: Writer, 1974–; cofounder of AutorenEdition, Munich, Germany, editor, 1972–82; publisher of Literarische Hefte (literary journal).

MEMBER: International PEN.

AWARDS, HONORS: Literature Prize of the City of Bremen, 1979; Literature Prize of the City of Munich, 1989; Children's Literature Prize, 1990, for Rennschwein Rudi Rüssel; Literary Prize, Bavarian Academy for Fine Arts, 2001; Writer in Residence in Bergen, Frankfurt am Main, 2002; Munich Literature Prize, 2002; and Schubart Literary Prize, 2003.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Albert Camus, Das Problem der Absurditat, H. Ludke (Hamburg, Germany), 1971.

(Editor, with Uwe Friesel) Freizeit: Texte zu einem schonen Wort und unserer Wirklichkeit, Bertelsmann (Munich, Germany), 1973.

Heisser Sommer (novel), Bertelsmann (Vienna, Austria), 1974.

(Editor, with Gerd Fuchs) Literatur und Wirklichkeit, Bertelsmann (Munich, Germany), 1976.

Morenga (novel), AutorenEdition (Munich, Germany), 1978, translation by Breon Mitchell published by New Directions Press, 2003.

Kerbels Flucht (novel), AutorenEdition (Munich, Germany), 1980.

Deutsche Kolonien, AutorenEdition (Munich, Germany), 1981.

Der Mann auf dem Hochrad (novel), Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, Germany), 1984.

Der Schlangenbaum (novel), Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, Germany), 1986, translation by Peter Tegel published as The Snake Tree, Picador (New York, NY), 1988.

Vogel, friss die Feige nicht: romische Aufzeichnungen, Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, Germany), 1989.

(With Bildern von Gunnar Matysiak) Rennschwein Rudi Rüssel (juvenile fiction), Nagel & Kimmche (Zurich, Switzerland), 1989.

Kopfjager: Bericht aus dem inneren des Landes (novel), Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, Germany), 1991, translation by Peter Tegel published as Headhunter, New Directions (New York, NY), 1994.

Erzahlen und kein Ende: Versuche zu einer Asthetik des Alltags, Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, Germany), 1993.

Die Entdeckung der Currywurst (novel), Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, Germany), 1993, translation by Leila Vennewitz published as The Invention of Curried Sausage, New Directions (New York, NY), 1995.

Johannisnacht (novel), Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, Germany), 1996, translation by Peter Tegel published as Midsummer Night, New Directions (New York, NY), 1998.

Die Bubi Scholz Story (companion book to film), Aufbau (Berlin, Germany), 1998.

Nicht morgen, nicht gestern (stories), Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, Germany), 1999.

Eine Hand voll Gras, Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, Germany), 2000.

Rot (novel), Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, Germany), 2001.

Am Beispiel meines Bruders (memoir), Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, Germany), 2003, translation by Anthea Bell published as In My Brother's Shadow: A Life and Death in the SS, Farrar, Straus, and Gir-oux (New York, NY), 2005.

Uwe Timm Lesebuch: die Stimme beim Schreiben (collection), edited by Martin Heilscher, Deutscher Taschenbuch (Munich, Germany), 2005.

Der Freund und der Fremde: eine Erzahlung, Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, Germany), 2005.

Author of screenplays, essays, and poems.

SIDELIGHTS: Several of Uwe Timm's novels have been translated from German to English, including one of his earliest, Morenga, which became available in English twenty-five years after its original publication. Set in South West Africa (now Namibia) at the beginning of the twentieth century, it is a story of German colonialism. The character of the title is the black leader of the Hottentot and Herero uprising against the Germans following the Boer War. The novel opens with German veterinarian Gottschalk's arrival, and his diary reveals his sympathies for the natives, whose lands are being stolen through genocide and brutality. The story has a documentary feel, with fictional characters and events interwoven with actual ones. A Kirkus Reviews contributor described Morenga as being "an important early work in the career of one of the best living German writers."

The Snake Tree was published in English soon after its German original, and was the first Timm work to be published in the United States. Wagner, a German engineer, is put in charge of a failing project in South America and manages it as though he were in Europe. The buildings are unstable in the rain forest environment, the workers go on strike, the corrupt military interferes, and Wagner is a victim of his circumstances, as well as the criminal element that vandalizes his property and steals his papers.

In Headhunter, investment banker Peter Walter and his partner, Dembrowski, flee Germany with millions of dollars of their clients' money and hide in Spain with Walter's wife and daughter and Dembrowski's mistress. During a year of exile, Walter keeps a journal in which he explains why he committed the crime, and also visits Easter Island to continue his ongoing study of the people who lived there fifteen hundred years earlier, and their culture that included cannibalism. Booklist reviewer David Cline called Headhunter "highly suspenseful and an appropriate allegory for our times."

A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that in The Invention of Curried Sausage, "Timm is trying to tell the tale of Germany's transition from Nazi totalitarianism to the 'sweetly pungent anarchy' of modern Germany." Timm acts as narrator, tracing this history through Lena Brucker, who in 1989 is an old woman who claims to have invented the popular sausage sold by street vendors. She tells her story, beginning in 1945, when the food service worker has an affair with a German naval officer who tells her about the wonderful spice he tasted in India. When she loses her job, she buys some curry, which she incorporates into her new sausage. Lena is sympathetic to the Jews, and her comments are recorded by the Gestapo. When the war ends, she is appalled to learn about the intensity of the atrocities committed by her countrymen. Kathleen Hughes commented in Booklist that "this highly entertaining, powerful work will dazzle American readers."

The Publishers Weekly critic who reviewed Midsummer Night, wrote that Timm's "fairy tales for grown-ups have sparkling surfaces that often cover unnerving insights into politics, nationalism, and social identity." Set in Berlin after the Wall has come down, it is the story of a journalist on assignment to write about the lowly potato. The writer, whose dying uncle muttered what he thinks was a potato variety, comes to Berlin and finds an expert on the subject, but he is caught up in the temptations of the city that is being redefined by artists such as Christo, including expensive phone sex, as well as its dangers, such as becoming involved with arms dealers. "Uwe Timm is to be commended for his ability to capture the energy of post-reunification Berlin," wrote Alan Tinkler in the Review of Contemporary Fiction.

In My Brother's Shadow: A Life and Death in the SS is a memoir and a tribute to Timm's brother, Karl-Heinz, who served in the SS from the age of eighteen. This older brother left when the author was two and died in the Ukraine a year later. In this memoir, Timm explores the history of Germany and of his family, which suffered from many sorrows in addition to the loss of their son. The book was published after all of Timm's family members had died. A Kirkus Reviews contributor described this book as "history and private life interfused utterly by a master writer in a way at once authentic, unpretentious, moving, and of extraordinary significance."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Ackermann, Irmgard, and Mechthild Borries, editors, Uwe Timm, Iudicium (Munich, Germany), 1988.

Timm, Uwe, Am Beispiel meines Bruders, Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, Germany), 2003, translation by Anthea Bell published as In My Brother's Shadow: A Life and Death in the SS, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (New York, NY), 2005.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 1994, David Cline, review of Headhunter, p. 1061; June 1, 1995, Kathleen Hughes, review of The Invention of Curried Sausage, p. 1732; March 15, 2005, Brendan Driscoll, review of In My Brother's Shadow, p. 1258.

Economist, October 19, 1996, review of Johannisnacht, p. S16.

Hollins Critic, April, 2005, Irving Malin, review of Morenga, p. 11.

Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2003, review of Morenga, p. 112; January 15, 2005, review of In My Brother's Shadow, p. 113.

Library Journal, March 1, 2005, Jim Doyle, review of In My Brother's Shadow, p. 98.

Publishers Weekly, March 16, 1990, Penny Kaganoff, review of The Snake Tree, p. 65; November 8, 1993, review of Headhunter, p. 57; March 27, 1995, review of The Invention of Curried Sausage, p. 74; March 30, 1998, review of Midsummer Night, p. 69; January 27, 2003, review of Morenga, p. 238; January 31, 2005, review of In My Brother's Shadow, p. 55.

Review of Contemporary Fiction, summer, 1994, Jack Byrne, review of Headhunter, p. 220; fall, 2000, Alan Tinker, review of Midsummer Night, p. 135.

World Literature Today, spring, 1994, Ulf Zimmermann, review of Die Entdeckung der Currywurst, p. 363; autumn, 1997, Christian Grawe, review of Johannisnacht, p. 780; autumn, 1999, review of Nicht morgen, nicht gestern, p. 734; spring, 2002, Gregory H. Wolf, review of Rot, p. 195.

ONLINE

New Books in German, http://www.new-books-in-german.com/ (February 17, 2006), review of In My Brother's Shadow.