Schattenfroh: Max Lawton and Mauro Javier Cardenas at Womb House Books

Join us for a discussion of Michael Lentz's 1001 page novel (his first book to be translated into English) at Womb House Books. 's translator Max Lawton will be in conversation with novelist Mauro Javier Cardenas.

Our narrator is held in complete darkness and isolation. His endless thoughts are turned into the book we are reading—Schattenfroh—directed by none other than the narrator’s mysterious jailer by the same name. Undulating through explorations of Renaissance art, the German reformation, time-defying esoterica, the printing process in the 16th century, Kabbalistic mysticism, and beyond, Schattenfroh is a remarkable book that, in turn, asks the remarkable of its readers.

Interruptions, breaks, and annotations both buoy and deceive, and endless historical references, literary allusions, and wordplay construct a baroque, encyclopedic quest. Schattenfroh’s publication in English marks a seminal moment in the history of the literary form.

Michael Lentz is an award-winning German author, musician, and performer of experimental texts and sound poetry. Schattenfroh is his first book to be translated into English. He currently lives in Berlin.

Max Lawton is a translator, novelist, and musician. He has translated many books by Vladimir Sorokin, including Blue Lard (NYRB Classics), Their Four Hearts, and Dispatches from the District Committee (both from Dalkey Archive Press).

Mauro Javier Cardenas is the author of American Abductions (Dalkey Archive, May 2024) and Aphasia (FSG, 2020) and The Revolutionaries Try Again (Coffee House Press, 2016). In 2017, The Hay Festival included him in Bogotá39, a selection of the best young Latin American novelists.

Host or Publisher Womb House Books