I do this thing where I ask non-native-English speakers who is the “Shakespeare” of their language. They can interpret this any way they want, and it is a great source of new things for me to read. When I asked my friend Ines—who is German—this question, she suggested Stefan Zweig on the grounds that he is someone every school-aged German reads.
To my surprise, Ines gave me a collection of Zweig’s short stories over Thanksgiving. I finally finished it tonight. The whole book was fantastic. If you’re looking for something to read you should check it out:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6907491-selected-stories
I have reproduced one of my favorites from the collection below. It is so great.
Thank you, Ines.
Buchmendel
…To the right of the cash-register, I recalled, there must be a doorway leading into a windowless room, where the only light was artificial. Yes, the place actually existed. The decorative scheme was different, but the proportions were unchanged. A square box of a place, behind the bar the card-room. My nerves thrilled as I contemplated the furniture, for I was on the track, I had found the clue, and soon I should know all. There were two small billiardtables, looking like silent ponds covered with green scum. In the corners, card-tables, at one of which two bearded men of professorial type were playing chess. Beside the iron stove, close to a door labelled “Telephone,” was another small table. In a flash, I had it! That was Mendel’s place, Jacob Mendel’s. That was where Mendel used to hang out, Buchmendel. I was in the Cafe Gluck! How could I have forgotten Jacob Mendel. Was it possible that I had not thought about him for ages, a man so peculiar as wellnigh to belong to the Land of Fable, the eighth wonder of the world, famous at the university and among a narrow circle of admirers, magician of bookfanciers, who had been wont to sit there from morning till night, an emblem of bookish lore, the glory of the Cafe Gluck? Why had I had so much difficulty in hooking my fish? How could I have forgotten Buchmendel? Buchmendel, by Stefan Zweig, pub 1929, tr. Anthea Bell 2009.