Last week at the Goethe-Institut in New York City, journalist Renata Adler, translator Damion Searls, and critic Liesl Schillinger celebrated the launch of the first full English-language translation of German writer Uwe Johnson's Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl (New York Review Books) with a reading and panel discussion about New York in the 1960s, politics then and now, and the challenges of translating an 1,800-page novel. The celebration marked the opening of a month-long installation and film series entitled "Riverside Drive Revisited: Uwe Johnson's New York," which brings to life New York in the 1960s, when Johnson lived there. The installation features newspaper headlines that accompany the main character of Anniversaries through her daily life in November 1967; digital images from the Uwe Johnson Archive in Rostock, Germany; a map of important places in the novel; and a reading room with books by Johnson and books that inspired Johnson. The film series will begin with the screening of the adaptation of Anniversaries, directed by Margarethe von Trotta, and continue with screenings of other films that depict New York during the 1960s and '70s.
Photo: Daniel Albanese
