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Irmgard Keun was born in Berlin in 1905. She published her first novel, Gilgi, One of Us, in 1931. Her second novel, The Artificial Silk Girl, became an instant bestseller in 1932, but was then blacklisted by the Nazis. Eventually sentenced to death, she fled the country and staged her own suicide before sneaking back into Germany, where she lived undercover for the duration of the war. She later resumed writing under the name of Charlotte Tralow, enjoying only modest success until her early works were rediscovered and reissued in the late 1970s. She died in Cologne in 1982.
“A highly original, extremely stylish novel...The narrator is a young woman whose irreverent and funny voice you will not easily forget.” —Daniel Kehlmann, New York Times Book Review “A young girl navigates interwar German society and the expectations—or lack thereof—placed upon women, in this poignant, melancholy novel from the late Keun…[This] heartbreaking story of dashed hopes is one that still has the power to affect and inspire.” —Publishers Weekly “Damned by the Nazis, hailed by the feminists...a truly charming window into a young woman’s life in the early 1930s.” —Los Angeles Times “The Artificial Silk Girl follows Doris into the underbelly of a city that had once seemed all glamour and promise...Kathie von Ankum’s English translation will bring this masterwork to the foreground once more, giving a new generation the chance to discover Keun for themselves.” —Elle.com
