English-language books on Berlin are oddly rare, for reasons I don’t entirely understand. Trying to hunt one down on Amazon, I ran into Jason Lutes’ Berlin, a portrait of ’20s Berlin as a graphic novel. I’m pretty enthusiastic about comics; 90% are crap, but the few great successes make up for them. And, if this review is anything to go by, Berlin is one of the good ones:

tracing the arcs of several overlapping narratives; playing with time; a fiction based around real events; in particular, mapping the sense of bewilderment, loss, chaos, creativity, and uncertainty in Berlin at that point – a city on the edge. Lutes plays out the chance encounters in bustling city life with real grace, ultimately to heartbreaking effect.

Has anybody read the thing? Is it as good as all that?

This week, the BBC have been playing daily extracts from (mostly English) fiction about Berlin. It’s all available to listen online for the next few days. The pieces are:

• Berlin Diary (Winter 1932-33) by Christopher Isherwood
• Camera Obscura by Judith Hermann
• Funeral in Berlin by Len Deighton
• The Wall by Anna Funder
• The Mural At Frau Krauser’s by James Hopkin

ENCOUNTER OF THE 3RD DIMENSION
Freitag, 14.November ab 19:00
ATM Gallery, Brunnenstr.24, Berlin-Mitte

Looks like a sweet place for all people who love to read.

[via]