{"title":"Books by Hans Magnus Enzensberger","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781803091815","title":"Anarchy′s Brief Summer – The Life and Death of Buenaventura Durruti","description":"A unique portrait of a revolutionary movement that is largely unknown outside Spain.    Northern Spain is the only part of Western Europe where anarchism played a significant role in the political life of the twentieth century. Enjoying wide-ranging support among both the urban and rural working class, its importance peaked during its “brief summer”—the civil war between the Republic and General Franco’s Falangists, during which anarchists even participated in the government of Catalonia.     Anarchy’s Brief Summer brings anarchism to life by focusing on the charismatic leader Buenaventura Durruti (1896–1936), who became a key figure in the Spanish Civil War after a militant and adventurous youth. The basis of the book is a compilation of texts: personal testimony, interviews with survivors, contemporary documents, memoirs, and academic assessments. They are all linked by Enzenberger’s own assessment in a series of glosses—a literary form that is somewhere between retelling and reconstruction—with the contradiction between fiction and fact reflecting the political contradictions of the Spanish Revolution.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43071124013234,"sku":"9781803091815","price":20.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781803091815.jpg?v=1786026565"},{"product_id":"9781847080530","title":"The Number Devil","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn international bestseller that does for maths what Horrible Histories did to bring humanities to life\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwelve-year-old Robert hates maths: his teacher sets his class boring problems and won't let them use their calculators. Then in his dreams Robert meets the Number Devil, who brings the subject magically to life, illustrating with wit and charm a world in which numbers can amaze and fascinate. Suddenly maths is nothing like the dreary, difficult process that so many of us dread, but a world of wonder that all begins to make sense. The Number Devil knows how to make maths devilishly simple. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith fun and helpful illustrations by Rotraut Susanne Berner, this is the perfect read for anyone fascinated by maths - or mystified by it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLearn all about:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNegative numbers\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePrime numbers\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSquare roots\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eTriangular numbers\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eFibonacci numbers\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eInfinite numbers\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eGeometry\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMathematical proofs\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'This enterprising and imaginative book will play its part in rescuing children froma lifetime phobia of maths' \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Enzensberger has made Pythagoras the new Harry Potter... Explaining mathematical concepts in a clear and highly original way' \u003ci\u003eSunday Business Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205769593010,"sku":"9781847080530","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781847080530.jpg?v=1786029649"},{"product_id":"9780857427342","title":"Money, Money, Money! – A Short Lesson in Economics","description":"A unique and modern approach to money, wealth, greed, and financial ignorance presented via a story of a family in the Munich suburbs.    The Federmanns live a pleasant but painfully normal life in the Munich suburbs. All that the three children really know about money is that there’s never enough of it in their family.      Every so often, their impish Great-Aunt Fé descends on the city. After repeated cycles of boom and bust, profligacy and poverty, the grand old lady has become enormously wealthy and lives alone in a villa on the shore of Lake Geneva. But what does Great-Aunt Fé want from the Federmanns, her only surviving relatives? This time, she invites the children to tea at her luxury hotel where she spoils, flummoxes, and inspires them. Dismayed at their ignorance of the financial ways of the world, she gives them a crash course in economics that piques their curiosity, unsettles their parents, and throws open a whole new world. The young Federmanns are for once taken seriously and together they try to answer burning questions: Where does money come from? Why are millionaires and billionaires never satisfied? And why are those with the most always showered with more?   In this rich volume, the renowned poet, translator, and essayist Hans Magnus Enzensberger turns his gimlet eye on the mechanisms and machinations of banks and politicians—the human greed, envy, and fear that fuels the global economy. A modern, but moral-less fable, Money, Money, Money! is shot through with Enzensberger’s trademark erudition, wit, and humanist desire to cut through jargon and forearm his readers against obscurantism.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685688025461,"sku":"9781803092126","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56295092584821,"sku":"9780857427342","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781803092126.jpg?v=1792598837"},{"product_id":"9780857429773","title":"Gone But Not Forgotten","description":"One of Germany’s greatest living writers offers up an analysis (and samples) of his failed projects.      “My dear fellow artists, whether writers, actors, painters, film-makers, singers, sculptors, or composers, why are you so reluctant to talk about your minor or major failures?” With that question, Hans Magnus Enzensberger—the most senior among Germany’s great writers—begins his amusing ruminations on his favorite projects that never saw the light of day. There is enlightenment in every embarrassing episode, he argues, and while artists tend to forget their successes quickly, the memory of a project that came to nothing stays in the mind for years, if not decades. Triumphs hold no lessons for us, but fiascos can extend our understanding, giving insight into the conditions of production, conventions, and practices of the industries concerned, and helping novices to assess the snares and minefields in the industry of their choice. What’s more, Enzensberger argues, flops have a therapeutic effect: They can cure, or at least alleviate, the vocational illnesses of authors, be it the loss of control or megalomania. In Gone but Not Forgotten, Enzensberger looks back at his uncompleted experiments not just in the world of books but also in cinema, theater, opera, and journal publishing, and shares with us a “store of ideas” teeming with sketches of still-possible projects. He also reflects on the likely reasons for these big and small defeats. Interspersed among his ruminations are excerpts from those experiments, giving readers a taste of what we missed. Together, the pieces in this volume build a remarkable picture of a versatile genius’s range of work over more than half a century and make us reflect on the very nature of success and failure by which we measure our lives.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295095796085,"sku":"9780857429773","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780857429773_4e849592-d058-48da-8fd5-74b1a5b89717.jpg?v=1786015641"},{"product_id":"9781780372501","title":"New Selected Poems","description":"As well as being Germany's most important poet, Hans Magnus Enzensberger is a provocative cultural essayist and one of Europe's leading political thinkers. No British poet can match him in his range of interests and his moral passion. Enzensberger is a cultured, learned, widely knowledgeable man, but his poems wear their knowledge, learning and culture very lightly. Perfectly at ease in a variety of poetic forms, he presents us again and again with things that matter. This is intelligent and pointed poetry in the tradition of Brecht, humanely political and generously engaged. The poems have the ease and the lightness of real mastery. They are moral in their insistence that human life can be lived well or badly, that it is up to us to choose well and to act wisely. Enzensberger is now writing with an increasing awareness of mortality, yet addresses social and political dangers and evils with undiminished urgency. This is a dual language edition expanding Enzensberger's earlier Bloodaxe Selected Poems with work from his later collections Kiosk, Lighter Than Air and A History of Clouds. The translations are by Enzensberger himself and by Michael Hamburger, David Constantine and Esther Kinsky.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312800641397,"sku":"9781780372501","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781780372501_21053e29-cb83-455e-ba10-68f8668cd09d.jpg?v=1786024967"},{"product_id":"mr-zeds-reflections","title":"Mr Zed’s Reflections","description":"Any new book by poet, essayist, writer, and translator Hans Magnus Enzensberger, one of the most influential and internationally renowned German intellectuals, is cause for notice, and Mr. Zed’s Reflections is no exception. Every afternoon for almost a year, a plump man named Mr. Zed comes to the same spot in the city park and engages passersby with quick-witted repartee. Those who pass ask, who is this man? A wisecracker, a clown, a belligerent philosopher? Many shake their heads and move on; others listen to him, engage with him, and, again and again, end up at the same place. He doesn’t write anything down, but his listeners often take notes. With subversive energy and masterful brevity, Mr. Zed undermines arrogance, megalomania, and false authority. A determined speaker who doesn’t care for ambitions, he forces topics that others would rather keep to themselves. Reluctant to trust institutions and seeing absolutely nothing as “non-negotiable,” he admits mistakes and does away with judgment.  He is no mere ventriloquist dummy for his creator—he is too stubborn for that. And at the end of the season, when it becomes too cold and uncomfortable in the park, he disappears, never to be seen again.    Collected in this thought-provoking and unique work are the considerations and provocations of this squat, park-bench philosopher, giving us a volume of truths and conversations that are clear-cut, skeptical, and fiercely illuminating.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57481597419893,"sku":"9780857428219","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780857428219.jpg?v=1786089875"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-hans-magnus-enzensberger.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}