»Kurt Tallerts literarisches Debüt ist ein blitzgescheiter Text.« FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG
KURT TALLERT
Spur und Abweg / Tracks and Detours
Auto-fiction, ca. 240 pages
Spring 2024
English sample available
A German-Jewish family, a father who survived, and the traces of a lost identity
What’s it like to grow up as the son of a persecuted man among the grandchildren of his persecutors?
Kurt Tallert tells his father's story - and his own
“We weren’t looking at the same world, even if people often told me I had his eyes.” Kurt Tallert
“Kurt Tallert's literary debut is a brilliantly clever text that not only reflects on his own family biography, but also repeatedly reaches out into the big picture.”
Sascha Feuchert, FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG
"Hidden in the autofiction of "Spur und Abweg" is a Bildungsroman of the heart.“
Christian Werthschulte, STADTREVUE
"In his literary debut, Kurt Tallert manages to bridge the gap between past and present, experience and memory in a very special way“
Max Burk, WDR WestArt
“Kurt Tallert finds a new way of remembering between essay, literature and document.”
Jakob Stärker, KULTUR.WEST
On Stones That Don’t Forget, and People Who Don’t Remember
In Tracks and Detours, Kurt Tallert confronts his family’s story of persecution under the Nazis. What makes his fate and his perspective on German history unique is the fact that Kurt Tallert is 37 today and yet, his father, Harry Tallert, was persecuted as a young man by the Nazis for being a ‘half-Jew’. Harry Tallert and his wife welcomed their son Kurt when Harry was already 58 years of age, and he died twelve years later.
Even as a schoolboy, Kurt Tallert had to learn: What is mere schoolbook history for much of his generation is very much alive for him, close enough to touch; it is his father’s story. A father who following his liberation, stayed in Germany, became a journalist, and a member of the Bundestag, and yet spent a lifetime trying to find his place. In Tracks and Detours, past meets present, what was passed down meets what was suppressed, experience encounters memory, and Kurt Tallert tells his father’s story — and his own — in an unmistakable tone.
An unforgettable debut and a piece of contemporary literature in which the shards of a life are put together to form a mirror of society.
Spur und Abweg / Tracks and Detours
Auto-fiction, ca. 240 pages
Spring 2024
English sample available
A German-Jewish family, a father who survived, and the traces of a lost identity
What’s it like to grow up as the son of a persecuted man among the grandchildren of his persecutors?
Kurt Tallert tells his father's story - and his own
“We weren’t looking at the same world, even if people often told me I had his eyes.” Kurt Tallert
“Kurt Tallert's literary debut is a brilliantly clever text that not only reflects on his own family biography, but also repeatedly reaches out into the big picture.”
Sascha Feuchert, FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG
"Hidden in the autofiction of "Spur und Abweg" is a Bildungsroman of the heart.“
Christian Werthschulte, STADTREVUE
"In his literary debut, Kurt Tallert manages to bridge the gap between past and present, experience and memory in a very special way“
Max Burk, WDR WestArt
“Kurt Tallert finds a new way of remembering between essay, literature and document.”
Jakob Stärker, KULTUR.WEST
On Stones That Don’t Forget, and People Who Don’t Remember
In Tracks and Detours, Kurt Tallert confronts his family’s story of persecution under the Nazis. What makes his fate and his perspective on German history unique is the fact that Kurt Tallert is 37 today and yet, his father, Harry Tallert, was persecuted as a young man by the Nazis for being a ‘half-Jew’. Harry Tallert and his wife welcomed their son Kurt when Harry was already 58 years of age, and he died twelve years later.
Even as a schoolboy, Kurt Tallert had to learn: What is mere schoolbook history for much of his generation is very much alive for him, close enough to touch; it is his father’s story. A father who following his liberation, stayed in Germany, became a journalist, and a member of the Bundestag, and yet spent a lifetime trying to find his place. In Tracks and Detours, past meets present, what was passed down meets what was suppressed, experience encounters memory, and Kurt Tallert tells his father’s story — and his own — in an unmistakable tone.
An unforgettable debut and a piece of contemporary literature in which the shards of a life are put together to form a mirror of society.
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Kurt Tallert
Kurt Tallert was born in Bad Honnef in 1987 and studied German and Spanish Studies. For over twenty years, he has shaped the German hip-hop scene as...
Kurt Tallert was born in Bad Honnef in 1987 and studied German and Spanish Studies. For over twenty years, he has shaped the German hip-hop scene as a rapper, DJ, and producer under the name Retrogott, and has released numerous albums. Tracks and Detours is his prose debut