The Architect of Ruins - Softcover

Herbert Rosendorfer was born in Germany in 1934. His first novel Der Ruinenbaumeister (1969) was a critical and commercial success, and is regarded by many critics as one of the masterpieces of German twentieth-century fiction. It was published in English by Dedalus in 1992 as The Architect of Ruins. This was followed by Stephanie in 1995, which was shortlisted for the Shlegel-Tieck Translation Prize. Letters Back to Ancient China is the most commercially successful of his novels. Mike Mitchell's translation was awarded the Schlegel-Tieck Translation Prize in 1997.

For many years an academic with a special interest in Austrian literature and culture, Mike Mitchell has been a freelance literary translator since 1995.He has published over fifty translations from German and French, including Gustav Meyrink's five novels and The Dedalus Book of Austrian Fantasy. His translation of Rosendorfer's Letters Back to Ancient China won the 1998 Schlegel-Tieck Translation Prize after he had been shortlisted in previous years for his translations of Stephanie by Herbert Rosendorfer and The Golem by Gustav Meyrink.

"This is a book of paradoxes to shake you out of your complacent preconceptions about time, narrative order and the experience of reading." -- Lucasta Miller, The Times

"Herbert Rosendorfer is a German writer. Despite that he has a sense of humor." -- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

"Amazing web of interlinked stories, with lots of musical references." -- Malcolm Smith in Booklist