At No Time: Scenes and Dialogues

Dramatic sketches full of surprising, unpredictable twists and turns from a major twentieth-century German-language author.

A member of the Gruppe 47 writers’ group which sought to renew German-language literature after World War II, Ilse Aichinger (1921-2016) achieved great acclaim as a writer of fiction, poetry, prose, and radio drama. The vignettes in At No Time each begin in recognizable situations, often set in Vienna or other Austrian cities, but immediately swerve into bizarre encounters, supernatural or fantastical situations. Precisely drawn yet disturbingly skewed, they are both naturalistic and disjointed, like the finest surrealist paintings. Created to be experienced on the page or on the radio rather than the stage, they echo the magic realism of her short stories. Even though they frequently take a dark turn, they remain full of humor, agility, and poetic freedom.

Ilse Aichinger (1921-2016) was an acclaimed Austrian writer of fiction, poetry, prose, and radio drama. She was the author of The Greater Hope, The Bound Man and Other Stories, and Bad Words. Steph Morris is a poet, translator, and artist living in London. He has translated both poetry and novels including Brigitte Reimann’s It All Tastes of Farewell and is the author of Please Don’t Trample Us; We Are Trying to Grow!.