I think reading a translation is an act of faith
Donna Leon
About Anne
I grew up in a rather rainy part of Germany, a small town, with a small bookshop wich turned out to be my second home. I spent my afternoons sitting on the stairs, carefully turning the pages of brand new books, reading whatever the shop owner allowed me to touch.
After finishing High School I studied Scandinavian and German Literature in Freiburg, in the sunny part of Germany, and took a Master of Arts.
However it was in a bookshop where I felt really at home, so I worked there beside my studies, doing whatever they allowed me to do.
The Erasmus exchange programme brought me to Oslo, Norway, where I lived for almost two years. I improved my language skills and got in contact with publishing.
Back in Germany I started a regular editor's career: Volunteer work, internships and freelance jobs. Finally I got a job at a publishing house and could call myself an editor.
I worked in German publishing for over ten years, before I decided to change perspectives and go over to the more creative side: first translating from Norwegian and Swedish, then writing.
Since 2008 I write professionally. I do a lot of readings, presentations and panels, to spread the word.
It was a long and maybe not the straightest way to become a writer. But every step was worth it.
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Anne von Canal passed away on October 20, 2022 as a result of ALS.
The novel "I get a bird"
Two autors, two fictional characters, a correspondence in letters like no other
One day at breakfast my friend Heikko and I decided to try a literary experiment: We would write letters to one another, but not as him and me, but as fictional charcters. Two people who never met before. The one loses her agenda, the other findst it and sends it back. That was all we agreed upon. No more info, no more plot, no more plans.
For more than two years we sent letters back and forth, written from the perspective of Johan and Jana.
These two (Johan, a busdriver with a heavy trauma, Jana an unemployed futuruist and bike courier, with a dark secret) get to know each other through this correspondance. They talk, they discuss, they struggle, they fight, the embarrase each other, they comfort each other, the remain silent, they cry out loud.
In the end, even though it wasn't planned at all, they find out that they share a past - which could be a bridge that leads to the future.
The novel was published in August 21 at Mare Verlag.
Rights are handled by Literarische Agentur Kossack
The novel "Whiteout"
What remains of a person who suddenly leaves your life without saying a word?
Hanna is working as a glaciologist. Her greatest passion is to understand the ice. Together with a small group of scientists she travels to Antarctica to drill icecrores which will contain new information about climate and weather thousands and thousands of years ago. In the endless light of the polar day the team works around the clock. Antarctic summer is short and the pressure high.
Then, of all times, an email, consisting of a single line reaches Hanna, in the midst of her expedition and rocks her world: "Dear Amundsen, Scott is dead. Contact me, Wilson."
In one fell swoop there returns the memory of her closest friend as a young girl, Fidi by name, who without any explanation broke off contact twenty years ago and in doing so not only betrayed their friendship but also their future plans.
Now in the endless icy expanse the unanswered question of why comes rushing back and distracts Hanna from her work. The tensions among the personnel of her
small research team are mounting and with a snowstorm threatening the success of their project, this expedition becomes not only a logistical but an emotional challenge.
“Hearing from you is the last thing I expected. Not here. Not now. Not in this way. All the same, I always asked myself how it would be to meet you face to face one more time. Whether I could muster the strength to turn around and leave without a word – or whether I still wanted you.”
The novel was published by Mare Verlag in 2017
The French Translation by Isabelle Liber was published by Slatkine & Cie in 2019
The trade paperback edition was pubslished in spring 2019 by Rowohlt Verlag
The novel "Der Grund"
How many times can you start your life over again?
"Der Grund" - which in German has the double meaning of "reason" and "the bottom of the sea" - tells the story of the Swedish piano player Laurits Simonsen, who works on big cruise ships being the entertainer at the bar. Laurits looks back on his life, which hasn't been all that easy: After trying and failing to be a piano student at the academy of Stockholm, he follows his patriachal father's wish and becomes a doctor. Initially his life turns out to be good anyway - in Silja he finds the love of his life and they have a wonderful daughter together - so he never regrets his decision until, many years later, he finds out, that everything he has reached is built up on a lie. His life doesn't seem to be his own anymore. A fact he is unable to deal with and the consequences he draws are fatal ...
The novel was published in 2014 at the small Mare Verlag, Hamburg, specialized on books about the sea - or anything that has to do with it. It has by now reached four print runs.
The audio book was published by Lübbe Audio in 2014, read by the wonderful actor Heikko Deutschmann.
The Estonian translation "Ei maa ega meri" was published by Varrak in 2014.
In spring 2016 Rowohlt Verlag published the trade paperback edition.
The French translation "Ni terre ni mer", was published by Edition Slatkine & Cie in march 2016.
The Anthology "Irgendwo ins grüne Meer"
"Irgendwo ins grüne Meer" (Somewhere in the Green Sea) is a collection of short stories about islands of all kinds and sorts. The contributing authors have created a colorful archipelago of real existing, made up and metaphoric islands.
All stories are originally written for the collection. All rights handled by Arche Verlag.