The Hothouse

7 April 2026

Territory Rights — Worldwide.

Wolfgang Koeppen (Author), Michael Hofmann (Translator)

With an Introduction by Pankaj Mishra

Description

On the anniversary of Wolfgang Koeppen’s 120th year, the two-remaining works in his postwar trilogy in Michael Hofmann’s spectacular translation

The Hothouse traces the tragic final two days in the life of a minor German politician, Keetenheuve, a man disillusioned by the corruption of his country after the Second World War. Following his self-imposed exile during the war, Keetenheuve returns to the hothouse: the city of Bonn, the capital of that new postwar capitalist nation, West Germany. Until this point he has led a life guided by principle and political optimism. Here, in spellbinding internal monologue and jarring montage, he meets his end. The Hothouse is an existential masterpiece and a portrait of a moral man crushed by an immoral world. Bitterly controversial at home, a cult writer abroad, Koeppen (1906–1996) brought a volcanic modernist style to German literature that remains unparalleled to this day. His uniquely radical voice and breathtaking prose is rendered magnificently by Michael Hofmann.

Also By: Wolfgang Koeppen View all by author...

  • Death in Rome

    Wolfgang Koeppen, Michael Hofmann

    Paperback, 2026

    “In a brilliant translation of this great German novel, Michael Hofmann has illuminated a dark corner of recent European history. A forgotten masterpiece.” — Evening Standard

  • Pigeons on the Grass

    Wolfgang Koeppen, Michael Hofmann

    Paperback, 2020

    Wolfgang Koeppen’s postwar masterpiece in a luminous new translation by the poet Michael Hofmann
  • Pigeons on the Grass

    Wolfgang Koeppen, Michael Hofmann

    E Book, 2020

    Wolfgang Koeppen’s postwar masterpiece in a luminous new translation by the poet Michael Hofmann
  • A Sad Affair: A Novel

    Wolfgang Koeppen, Michael Hofmann

    Hardback, 2003

    A romantic roman à clef that tells the story of Sibylle, one of the greatest literary femmes fatales since Salomé.
  • Death in Rome

    Wolfgang Koeppen, Michael Hofmann

    Paperback, 2001

    A prophetic novel that ranks with The Tin Drum and W. G. Sebald's The Emigrants as one of the essential works of contemporary European fiction.

Also By: Michael Hofmann View all by author...

  • Death in Rome

    Wolfgang Koeppen, Michael Hofmann

    Paperback, 2026

    “In a brilliant translation of this great German novel, Michael Hofmann has illuminated a dark corner of recent European history. A forgotten masterpiece.” — Evening Standard

  • The Living Statue: A Legend

    Günter Grass, Michael Hofmann

    Paperback, 2025

    A newly discovered and translated jewel of a story from the Nobel laureate
  • Kairos

    Jenny Erpenbeck, Michael Hofmann

    Paperback, 2024

    Now in paperback, Jenny Erpenbeck’s Kairos is a dramatic love story that unfolds as the GDR implodes“an intimate account of obsessive, transgressive passion” (Claire Messud, Harper’s)
  • Kairos

    Jenny Erpenbeck, Michael Hofmann

    Hardback, 2023

    Jenny Erpenbeck’s much anticipated new novel Kairos is a complicated love story set amidst swirling, cataclysmic events as the GDR collapses and an old world evaporates
  • Pigeons on the Grass

    Wolfgang Koeppen, Michael Hofmann

    Paperback, 2020

    Wolfgang Koeppen’s postwar masterpiece in a luminous new translation by the poet Michael Hofmann

Paperback

9780811240000

127 x 203 mm • 240 pages

£13.99

Add to Basket

Ebook

9780811240017

Powered by Glassboxx

£13.99

Coming Soon