The German Edition.

The German version of The Name of the Wind is coming out soon. Check out the cover.

(Click to Embiggen.)

Though it happened a while back, this German deal was kind of a big deal. The publisher that’s handling it in Germany doesn’t do much fantasy, just a very few authors like Tolkien and Tad Williams. So the fact that they bought my book gave me some much-needed respectability that helped us make some other foreign sales. It also was nice knowing that they take their stuff very seriously, and would do a good job with the translation and publication of the book.

German is the only language other than English that I know anything about. But honestly, I can’t claim to be anything other than illiterate in my second language. I can remember a few phrases, like, “Gleich um die Ecce,” “Wennigsten functionieren die wasserliedung!” and “Ich habe zu vielen affen spielen im meinem obenboden.”

Other than that, I have a bunch of nouns and verbs rattling around in my head, but my ability to string them together grammatically is really non-existent. Combined with my horrible spelling, I’m guessing that what I’ve written up above is barely German at all. And more like that language twins use to speak to each other.

My German non-literacy was really driven home to me when I read the title and thought, “Des. Des…. does that indicate the nominative case?” Then I realized I couldn’t even remember what the nominative case was. In fact, I’m pretty iffy as to what a case is at all, nominative or otherwise. This pretty much shatters any hope I had of ever reading my own book in another language.

It was a nice thought while it lasted.

Later all,

pat

This entry was posted in book covers, foreign happeningsBy Pat36 Responses

35 Comments

  1. Ben
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 7:02 AM | Permalink

    I like the cover. It’s nice and simple, nothing too flashy. I’m tempted to track down a copy just for the cover lol, even though the only German I know is, Ich bin Eine Bibliotech! (Yes i know it means I am a library…)

  2. pdxtrent
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 7:02 AM | Permalink

    Is it so wrong that barring the weird demon face thingy above the castle gate, this is my favorite cover so far? And until I wrote that, I am pretty sure I would have said that never in my life would I write a sentence about weird demon face thingys. Sometimes being a genre fan has its unexpected perks.

  3. Captain Joe
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 7:29 AM | Permalink

    This is an awesome looking cover, that’s for damn sure.As for German, I can count to one hundred and spent a lovely half hour at Munich International Airport a few years ago. It was snowing, which was awesome.Hmm, I wonder how many covers there are to go? Each new one has its own amount of awesome.

  4. Anonymous
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 8:23 AM | Permalink

    Gratz, Pat!I’ve read your book a while back. Needless to say that it rocks. You know that. Everyone else reading this does.Sadly, a lot of people I know who I think would like your book, aren’t really interested in reading books written in English (yap, I’m from Germany). Now, at last, I know what to buy for them.And yes, Klett-Cotta usually dabbles very little in fantasy. So, again: gratz!Bye,Jason.P.S.: I know that nobody likes a smart-ass, but when will I ever have the opportunity to lecture you, the Sloth Roth, again?“des” – as in “Der Name des Windes” – indicates the male and neuter genetive case. But I guess you’ve already googled it up, didn’t you? ;-)You know, us poor Germans have to fend with three grammatical genders: male, female, neuter. But only with four cases. It’s a great foundation for learning Latin, though.`Nuff said. Keep on writing, man!P.P.S.: on a different note: how would you like to post book and/or author recommendations on a (pseudo-)regular basis? You pointed me to Gaiman and Butcher, authors whose books I’ve enjoyed very much. More!

  5. marky
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 8:24 AM | Permalink

    Great cover. Very atmospheric. Unfortunately, I don’t know any German. But I do know a good German joke…. A Scottish, English and Irishman get caught by Saddam in the gulf war. He lines them up and tells them that they are allowed to make a run for the border using any means of transport they can think of. The English guy goes first. He asks for a Porsche. He is one mile away from the border when he’s twatted by a scud missile. The Irish guy goes next. He thinks hard. He asks for a Lamborghini. 180 miles an hour and half a mile from the border a scud missile catches him. Last up, the Scottish guy stands stroking his ginger beard for a while and finally asks Saddam for a German Sheppard and four springs. Saddam looks puzzled, but agrees. The Scot then ties the four springs on the German Sheppard, climbs on its back and bounces across the border.Saddam, completely awe struck, asks him how he thought up such a great idea. The Scott turns to Saddam and says “have you never heard of the four sprung dog technique?”Sorry. I’m off to have some kittens for breakfast now!

  6. Danna
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 9:57 AM | Permalink

    “…language twins use to speak to each other.”Ellen DeGeneres said the exact same thing in one of her episodes.

  7. a
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 10:10 AM | Permalink

    The British cover has always been my favorite, I sought one out on my recent vacation to Ireland. This one might take that prize, however. I’ve no plans on going to Germany, but wouldn’t mind getting my hands on one of those. But the one foreign one I do have cost like 30 or 40 euros (50-65 dollars) which is kind of ridiculous considering I already owned 3 copies.

  8. Anonymous
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 10:32 AM | Permalink

    Iam German and im thinking about reading the name of the wind in german or in english a second time(original is always better).Btw ur sentences are pretty messed up xD.

  9. Anonymous
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 11:47 AM | Permalink

    Yay for the german translation, this will help me to promote the book with the non english-reading folks here. But what really (really!) pisses me off, is the fact that i have to wait till october to read the second part of your trilogy, and worse yet, i guess even much longer before the third book comes out.I read the first book and was sucked into this living world you created. I guess i’ll just have to reread it :-)Cheers

  10. suziko
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 12:05 PM | Permalink

    I don’t know German, but in Russian the sentence structure would demand the genetive (possessive) case there, so I’d assume it would in German as well.Nominative case is used for the noun of the sentence.Sorry if I sounded like “Little Miss Know-it-all”. I really do not know much at all.Cool cover!

  11. Kip, Extreme Muffins
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 1:40 PM | Permalink

    I only know how to ask people if they want to screw in German. And say thank you. oh and how to say no. Why does he have a staff? That’s what I want to know

  12. RippleDipper
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 2:26 PM | Permalink

    “I know a little German, he’s sitting over there.”Top Secret is a brilliant film.

  13. Anonymous
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 2:29 PM | Permalink

    Too many monkeys are playing in your what now?So when is the Welsh verson coming out? How about Manx? Esperanto?Cheers,Todd

  14. Mary J.
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 4:16 PM | Permalink

    Me likey- so shiny! :-)Hiya Kip- I wondered about the staff too. That’s also a <>really<> big sword.Hey Jason- are the words floating in the background from the book or are they German for “Copyrighted”?Look Pat! Hobbits pressed your book!

  15. Apple of Carthage
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 4:27 PM | Permalink

    I don’t get the four sprung dog technique joke. Does that make me clueless? Somebody explain it to me…

  16. phil
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 4:38 PM | Permalink

    I like the setting of this cover. It is simple and neat to look at. My only problem is the character’s, I’m assuming that it is Kvothe, His hair looks short and I get a vibe that he is more of a knight or something. But it is pretty sweet otherwise.

  17. marky
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 4:39 PM | Permalink

    Audi used Vorsprung durch Technik for there slogan to promote trust in there product.Now it is even less funny. :-(DOOH!

  18. Apple of Carthage
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 4:44 PM | Permalink

    Nope. Not funny at all. Now, a banana cream pie in the face–there’s some humor!

  19. v-d
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 6:55 PM | Permalink

    @patrick:congratulations for being published by Klett-Cotta, they usually do a REALLY good job and therefore have a really good reputation as well.[It’s true that Klett-Cotta doesn’t publish loads of fantasy but they sure do have quite a few titles in their repertoire – e.g. the works of tolkien and tad williams, as you already mentioned, furthermore peter s. beagle, scott r. bakker, steven brust, and many more – and even a seperate label for these books, the “Hobbit Presse”.]I just bought “the name of the wind” and am really anxious to read it in my upcoming semester break :)@mary j.:these are really floating words in the background of the cover, though I think they’re Italian or Latin or something like that.

  20. sienged
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 8:39 PM | Permalink

    marky said “Saddam, completely awe struck, asks him how he thought up such a great idea.The Scott turns to Saddam and says “have you never heard of the four sprung dog technique?” “The funniest part is that they are talking like old friends after Saddam just killed two of his buddies and threatened to blow him up with a scud missile. Maybe if saddam invited him back to ask he could hit him in the face with a banana cream pie. Attatched to a sc ud missle for being dumb enough to return and talk.Or maybe they texted each other i dont know. P.s. Word verification Was Vhkqaham- sounds delicious, maybe a German flavored ham dish.

  21. ediFanoB
    Posted July 2, 2008 at 9:45 PM | Permalink

    First of all I’m a native German and I live in Germany. In former times I always waited for translations. Nowadays I prefer to read original ones. I bought the paperback edition of The Name of the Wind and it is one of my current readings. To be honest I don’t like the cover of the German edition.From my point of view it has an infantine touch.Anyway I agree with v-d Klett-Cotta is a good choice.They do a goood job concerning translation and so on.

  22. logankstewart
    Posted July 3, 2008 at 2:53 AM | Permalink

    I think this is my favorite cover so far. And congrats, Pat, on becoming kind of a big deal in Germany.

  23. marky
    Posted July 3, 2008 at 8:04 AM | Permalink

    @sienged “The funniest part is that they are talking like old friends after Saddam just killed two of his buddies”I can confirm that they never knew one another well enough to form a buddy relationship. I don’t know the reason behind the Scottish guy returning to talk with Saddam. Let’s just say war does funny things to a man.Two fish in a tank, one turns to the other and says “how do you drive this thing”.Better?

  24. Kalligenia
    Posted July 3, 2008 at 1:04 PM | Permalink

    I really like this cover, too. Though I wonder about the staff. I also wonder what he’s thinking as he’s standing there….

  25. Jeff
    Posted July 3, 2008 at 5:23 PM | Permalink

    Although I like the cover, it’s elegant and stylish. Still I get the idea the picture has nothing to do with to do with the book, hence the strange beasts some of the other shapes ride on.

  26. Anonymous
    Posted July 3, 2008 at 7:32 PM | Permalink

    A while back, Pat mentioned the book Dead to Me by Anton Strout. Strangly enough, Pat’s name is now in the first subtitle under latest news on Strout’s webpage. Someone’s copying. :)

  27. Anonymous
    Posted July 3, 2008 at 7:47 PM | Permalink

    What are those words in the background?

  28. Anonymous
    Posted July 5, 2008 at 3:35 AM | Permalink

    Its the Awesomest! Seriously, it shits on all the other covers from a birds’ eye view. I swear it potrayes the type of story the name of the wind is…But given that Germany is basically the origin of fantasy–in a sense that they are the creators of the elfs and dwarfs and the such–it mmakes sense i guess. Officially my fav where as the italian version….

  29. Oresika
    Posted July 6, 2008 at 7:49 AM | Permalink

    Hey, Pat. I’m a new fan of yours that admittedly, well, read and finished your book in one of eleven days I spent in a psychiatric ward. Long story, but just one of many in the one we call life.Anyway, I just wanted to say kudos on your success and it really was a great book. I found myself constantly wondering things about the characters, and how those things would develop into certain traits, or what would happen to them entirely. It was just an amazing experience for me, especially since I could relate so directly.I’m sure you’re both used to and tired of praise by now, but you’re an amazing writer. So much so, in fact, that you’ve inspired me to continue my pursuit of a career in the field. Right now I’m really just a realistically optimistic 15 year old wanting to release emotions onto whatever paper willing to listen and copy it.I just wanted to let you know, if you even read this 30th comment on such a largely popular page, that you’ve done a wonderful job and you’ve reignited a flame I’ve tried to hide and keep down for a very long time. I may not be as proficient as you in writing just yet, but I’m sure with time and age I’ll be able to call you a peer at some point in the future.I’m going to keep re-reading your book as well as many others I enjoyed (such as the classic Narnia series, but who doesn’t love subtle religious references in their characters.) and use the inspiration I so rarely find to continue writing and, hopefully, some day be published.Thanks a lot for writing this book. I say that with all earnest honesty I can summon up since I’m not normally one to compliment or look up to people. I really mean it when I say this book potentially changed my life.

  30. Gabriele C.
    Posted July 8, 2008 at 12:32 AM | Permalink

    The words in the background are Latin. It’s a nice idea – albeit probably recognised by Mediaeval geeks only – to present the novel as some sort of <>palimpsest<>, a parchment where the first layer, the one that contains the ink, has been shaved off with a sharp knife so that new words can be written on the parchment. Some traces of the old writing always shine through. It was common in the Middle Ages because parchment was pretty expensive. You can get all philosophical about how much does Kvothe rewrite his own history, is it a palimpsest of what really happened? Baudolino, Eco’s creation and in some aspects a brother of Kvothe (imho) writes his history on a palimpsest as he mentions in the beginning of the novel.OK, geek fest over. :)

  31. kellye l. parish
    Posted July 8, 2008 at 12:37 PM | Permalink

    Man, their book cover is super-cool. Which makes me super-jealous as (alas) I cannot speak German. Mostly because every German I’ve ever met has intimidated the living daylights out of me. German boys are pretty hot though. So it seems the cover has an appropriate level of German Kvothe hotness. And I agree with Anonymous German(tm). Your author recs are fabulous. Keep it up! :)

  32. Kelly Swails
    Posted July 10, 2008 at 9:35 PM | Permalink

    I think I like this cover the best of them all.

  33. Anonymous
    Posted July 13, 2008 at 8:45 PM | Permalink

    Hey Pat,first of all thanks a lot for your great book!I am a trainee bookseller from germany and honestly i read a lot, especially fantasy, but your book was truly remarkable and outstanding, i enjoyed it a lot and had a great time reading it(actually in about 12 hours, i just couldn’t put i away). I guess you have heard all that before but nevertheless i had to say it ;-)Like some people before me already said you screwed your german sentences a little, and i dont want to lecture anybody but maybe you will need your german in the future (maybe i get lucky and you come to berlin one day) so if you dont mind i will correct them?!It should be:“Gleich um die Ecke” (right around the corner) “Wenigsten funktionieren die wasserleitungen!” (at least the water conduit works, if thats what you meant?!)and “Ich habe zu vielen affen spielen im meinem obenboden.” well that one is pretty funny because i cant come up with a german translation that make sense, except “Ich habe zuviele Affen in meinem Oberstübchen” (whats the english original btw?)The german cover is so far the best i have seen of your book, and i am waiting for my review example so far.any chance i will see u at the worlds biggest bookfair in frankfurt/germany this year?if yes at what stand will u be?keep on writing, i can hardly wait for book2greetings from good old germanyFlorian

  34. Sören
    Posted July 14, 2010 at 12:50 PM | Permalink

    Hey, I’m from Germany and read this book at Christmas 2008 in German, and it’ great. Some time later I read it a second time, before I bought the English version to compare them. And my impression is that the German version is at least as good as the English one.
    There are some nice details in the German version, missing in the English version: at every break there is some fine symbol.
    Altogether Klett-Cotta did a very good job.
    If any one of you, how can speak a bit German want to get an impression of the German version, read the prologue. It’s very atmospheric.
    Sören

  35. J McK
    Posted December 11, 2016 at 6:59 AM | Permalink

    I’m learning German so I might get this.

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