geborenen.» Although the poem was first published in 1939 during Brecht ’ s exile in Scandinavia and hence specifically refers to his fate as a refugee from Nazi Germany, Jan Knopf, a renowned Brecht expert who, among other notable contributions to Brecht scholarship, served as one of the editors of the thirty-volume Große kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe (1988 - 2000) and editor of the fourvolume Brecht-Handbuch (2001 - 2003), draws explicit attention to those proverbial dark times in the subtitle of his biography - thereby perhaps not entirely convincingly implying that Brecht ’ s entire life was exclusively engulfed by dark times. These dark times Brecht came to grips with by means of his Lebenskunst or ability to master challenging situations during his life. As a consequence, Knopf goes beyond the confines of a conventional life story by including fairly extensive references to and brief explications of those political, economic, and cultural developments during Brecht ’ s lifespan with which the subject of his biography had to contend and to which he responded via his writings. Knopf clearly indicates the interrelatedness of Brecht ’ s biography and the events that shaped it by establishing a pertinent historical framework as evidenced by the designation of the four chapters of the biography - each of which is subdivided into numerous, comparatively brief sections which are usually headed by pithy formulations. The chapter headings correspond to the commonly accepted periodization of German history during Brecht ’ s lifetime. Thus in the comparatively brief first chapter, entitled «Deutsches Kaiserreich (1898 - 1918),» which depicts Brecht ’ s essentially bourgeois childhood and youth in Augsburg as well as the beginnings of his writings, Knopf also draws attention to the jingoistic tendencies prevalent in the German Empire before and during World War I by referring, for instance, to the infamous «Hunnenrede» (1900) of Wilhelm II, in which the Emperor ordered the German troops embarking for China to crush the so-called «Boxer Rebellion» without mercy (14). Moreover, Knopf sketches the unsettling consequences of the First World War such as «die Entmachtung des bürgerlichen Individuums» (53) - a process that is reflected in Brecht ’ s early plays Baal and Trommeln in der Nacht. «Weimarer Republik (1918 - 1933),» the second and lengthiest chapter, is devoted to what may be defined as Brecht ’ s rise to prominence during a period that constituted presumably the least «finster[e]» period of his life. Notably Brecht ’ s attempts to become established in Berlin, the cultural center of the Weimar Republic, were ultimately successful as the extraordinary and almost legendary success of Die Dreigroschenoper (1928), a collaborative effort with Kurt Weill, shows. Conceivably, the heading of one of the subsections, «Auto, Technik, Sex» (179 - 84), puts in a nutshell Brecht ’ s extra-literary preoccupations and pursuits - not necessarily in this order - such as his uncanny ability to acquire cars without sufficient funding or his noteworthy indulgence in promiscuity, the beginning of which Knopf dates at about 1919/ 1920 (39). Paula Banholzer («Bi»), Hedda Kuhn, and Marianne Zoff in Augsburg and Munich, as well as collaborator Elisabeth Hauptmann, remarkable actress and Brecht ’ s future wife Helene Weigel, and talented working-class co-author Margarete Steffin in Berlin played important roles in Brecht ’ s life. The third chapter, entitled «Deutscher Faschismus (1933 - 1945/ 47),» deals with Brecht ’ s exile in Scandinavia and the United States (the year 1947 denotes Brecht ’ s 352 Besprechungen/ Reviews return to Europe from his American exile). The manifold dangers of the exile existence are evident, for example, in the episode entitled «Kreuzfahrt als Himmelfahrtskommando: Marx übers und ins Meer» (387 - 89) about the escape of Brecht and his family (including Ruth Berlau) on the Swedish freighter Annie Johnson from Vladivostok in Siberia to San Pedro, the harbor of Los Angeles, in 1941. At the end of the journey Brecht tossed his edition of Marx ’ s writings, which he had purchased shortly before his departure from Vladivostok, overboard to avoid trouble with the US immigration authorities. The entire episode is reported by Knopf in a factual manner; after all, the situation did not lend itself to heroics on the part of the presumed Marxist Brecht who had escaped from both the Nazis and Stalin ’ s henchmen. As actor and theater director Fritz Kortner, also a refugee from Nazi Germany, put it: «Es war wirklich Rettung in der höchsten Not» (389). Brecht ’ s exile ended after his well-rehearsed «Valentiniade» (455) before HUAC on 30 October 1947 in Washington, DC. In the concluding chapter «Deutsche Folgen (1945/ 47 - 1956),» Knopf provides a detailed discussion of the last phase of Brecht ’ s life and creativity in Switzerland and (East) Berlin. The return to Berlin proved to be problematic inasmuch as Brecht was not eagerly welcomed by the party functionaries of the SED. However, after the Berliner Ensemble, owing to the indefatigable efforts of Helene Weigel, had in 1954 finally found a venue first at the Deutsches Theater and then a permanent home at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, the erstwhile site of the staging of Die Dreigroschenoper, the ensemble ’ s productions eventually achieved national and international renown; however, Brecht and his theater never gained the full support of the authorities. Particularly after the unsuccessful uprising on 17 June 1953 in East Berlin and the GDR, Brecht spent much time in Buckow, his country retreat, before his death in 1956. Despite Knopf ’ s claim that in view of the extraordinarily extensive archival and other materials, which served as the sources of his biography, his main task was «wegzulassen» (522), Bertolt Brecht provides a wealth of information and casts new light on various facets of the «finsteren Zeiten» in Brecht ’ s life. Moreover, Knopf provides reader-friendly «Stellennachweise,» a «Werkregister,» as well as a «Personenregister» - items that are not necessarily to be expected in a biography. It may be perceived as disappointing that Knopf ends his biography with Brecht ’ s death and thereby foregoes the chance to provide an assessment of his enduring significance for the first decade or so of the twenty-first century. To be sure, such an omission appears to be a minor lapse in view of the detailed, impressive account that Knopf provides. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Siegfried Mews L YN M ARVEN AND S TUART T ABERNER (E DS .): Emerging German-Language Novelists of the Twenty-First Century. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2011. 273 pp. $ 75 Lyn Marven, who has translated numerous contemporary German texts and her coeditor Stuart Taberner, who has established himself through numerous books and edited volumes as one of the prominent voices on contemporary German literature, 353 Besprechungen/ Reviews succeed in presenting a volume that delivers a detailed analysis of recently emerging authors. Marven defines these «emerging writers» in her introduction as those who have encountered «a rise to prominence on a number of levels and in a range of arenas» (1) in the first decade of the new millennium. The selection strikes an effective balance in analyzing works of well-known authors such as Juli Zeh, Sybille Berg, and Sven Regener as well as introducing lesser-known authors and works to an international audience. Each of the first fifteen contributions concentrates on the analysis of one narrative, presenting both author and text to the reader. The chapters analyze the respective material in the context of the writer as a whole and place them within wider literary or theoretical trends. Whilst the novels may be united «in their lack of unity» (12), they present an intricate mosaic-like image of the Berlin Republic through a range of literary styles, plots, and protagonists. Each of the authors delivers a comprehensively researched and methodically argued chapter. Anke Biendarra analyzes the trauma the protagonist of Terézia Mora ’ s debut Alle Tage (2004) undergoes and concludes that «the text undermines the notion that transnational mobility and its associated process can set free any liberatory power» (58). Stephen Brockmann traces Juli Zeh ’ s interest in contemporary nihilism in her novel Spieltrieb (2004), refreshingly presenting her image of the Generation Golf as knowledgeable in literature, philosophy, and politics and engaging in questions of morality and values (72). Coining the term «Eastern turn» for contemporary Germanlanguage literature, Brigid Haines examines Wie der Soldat das Grammofon reparierte (2006), Sa š a Stani š ic´ ’ s first novel, as a counter narrative to «the stereotypes of exotic, yet tragic Balkan otherness» (105), articulating the metaphor of sport to negotiate issues of nationalism, identity, and violence. Discourses of Heimat are inspected through Sibylle Berg ’ s peripatetic characters in her novel Die Fahrt (2007), which according to Emily Jeremiah places her into a «glocal» (143) context, simultaneously exploring and partaking in the production of a new form of hybrid. When the protagonist of Karen Duve ’ s intertextual Taxi (2008) navigates the urban space of Hamburg, Heike Bartel reads his movement through space and time as a «critical reflection of postmodern society and its troubled individuals» (191), showcasing Duve ’ s talented writing and signature dark humor. Leaving Germany behind, Yadé Kara ’ s Café Cyprus (2008) transports the reader to London as seen through the eyes of Berlin born Hasan Kazan; Kate Roy locates in this novel a «challenge to categorical distinction in ethnic terms» (207). Returning to Berlin and Sven Regener ’ s popular protagonist Herr Lehmann in Der kleine Bruder (2008), Andrew Plowman convincingly argues that he is confirmed as the sine qua non for a mythic SO36 scene in the memory and performance of 1980s Kreuzberg (225). Last but not least, Sonja Klocke analyzes issues of disability and illness in Kathrin Schmidt ’ s Du stirbst nicht (2009) as illustration of the existing connections between body, memory, and language, recovery of which all has the protagonist ultimately find her new positionality (240). The last section of the book puts its projected goal of making contemporary German-language literature accessible to an international audience into practice, when it concludes in a surprising move with two texts in translation, Katy Derbyshire ’ s 354 Besprechungen/ Reviews