As the publisher of A Happy Man, I thought people might be interested in hearing how Les Figues found Axel Thormählen and A Happy Man. In 2006, Les Figues co-publisher Vanessa Place and I went to Lund, Sweden, to visit our friend, poet and scholar Susan McCabe, who was there on a Fulbright fellowship. Susan graciously offered to host a small reception for Les Figues and invited some local colleagues and writers, including Marianne Thormählen, professor of English at Lund University. Marianne attended the event, along with her husband, the German writer Axel Thormählen. Axel had published several novels in Germany, and some of his work had been translated into Swedish. Marianne had also been translating some of his short stories into English, and they had recently co-produced a small collection of these translations, published in a limited edition by their own small press, Holmby International.

The reception was small, and as most everyone there was a writer of some variety, we decided to share some of our work. Susan read poems from the manuscript-version of Descartes’ Nightmare (University of Utah Press, 2008); Vanessa read from Dies: A Sentence (Les Figues, 2005), and I read from a novel, still in progress. Then Marianne read her translation of “A Happy Man,” which was, as she said, exactly six minutes long. More, we agreed afterwards, it was a perfect story: specific in its materiality, compelling in its philosophical scope, deeply satisfying in its use of suspense and narrative arc.

Vanessa and I asked to see more of Axel’s stories, and suffice to say, we found more of the same. We’re so delighted to bring Axel’s work to an English-speaking American audience. Enjoy.

What a wonderful story - and what a wonderful format. I enjoyed reading it in German, and then in English (and then...); the languages seem to co-exist and each have a subtle dimension of their own, while working together. Thormählen is a true master at containing vast philosophical explorations within an understated framework, one which compels the reader to reflect. And then think about it some more. A perfectly bite-sized short story - but a filling one!

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