What do you think?
Rate this book
Das Bad
Like New!!!
59 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1989
2 people are currently reading
79 people want to read
About the author
Yōko Tawada
125 books1,030 followersYōko Tawada (多和田葉子 Tawada Yōko, born March 23, 1960) is a Japanese writer currently living in Berlin, Germany. She writes in both Japanese and German.
Tawada was born in Tokyo, received her undergraduate education at Waseda University in 1982 with a major in Russian literature, then studied at Hamburg University where she received a master's degree in contemporary German literature. She received her doctorate in German literature at the University of Zurich. In 1987 she published Nur da wo du bist da ist nichts—Anata no iru tokoro dake nani mo nai (A Void Only Where You Are), a collection of poems in a German and Japanese bilingual edition.
Tawada's Missing Heels received the Gunzo Prize for New Writers in 1991, and The Bridegroom Was a Dog received the Akutagawa Prize in 1993. In 1999 she became writer-in-residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for four months. Her Suspect on the Night Train won the Tanizaki Prize and Ito Sei Literary Prize in 2003.
Tawada received the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize in 1996, a German award to foreign writers in recognition of their contribution to German culture, and the Goethe Medal in 2005.
(from Wikipedia)
Tawada was born in Tokyo, received her undergraduate education at Waseda University in 1982 with a major in Russian literature, then studied at Hamburg University where she received a master's degree in contemporary German literature. She received her doctorate in German literature at the University of Zurich. In 1987 she published Nur da wo du bist da ist nichts—Anata no iru tokoro dake nani mo nai (A Void Only Where You Are), a collection of poems in a German and Japanese bilingual edition.
Tawada's Missing Heels received the Gunzo Prize for New Writers in 1991, and The Bridegroom Was a Dog received the Akutagawa Prize in 1993. In 1999 she became writer-in-residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for four months. Her Suspect on the Night Train won the Tanizaki Prize and Ito Sei Literary Prize in 2003.
Tawada received the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize in 1996, a German award to foreign writers in recognition of their contribution to German culture, and the Goethe Medal in 2005.
(from Wikipedia)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 16, 2022
Eine Geschichte voller Metaphern und Analogien auf das Leben. Die Bilder sind oft grotesk und schön zugleich, manchmal fast schon unverständlich, so schnell springen sie um in neue Bilder.
January 27, 2022
Weird, aber auf eine gute Art und Weise (3.5)
August 21, 2017
Kurz, creepy, aber doch sanft, sanft: ein Teil Kafka, ein Teil Kobo, doch ganz Tawada.
June 1, 2016
Really interesting book. The reader doesn't know what's real and what's fantasy or dreaming. There are some motives which reappear all throughout the story and make up a nice pattern of allucinations or scenes, narrated by this non-speaking, fish-like, self-murdered (apparently by burning) japanese woman. At moments terrorific, at moments surrealist, at moments simply realist, the smooth and easy way of telling of the narrator leads the reader through a story which is made up of different layers of meaning.
One should stop and think of the role that Das Bad plays; the meaning of the lack of tongue, the meaning of the unability to say "Ich" ("I"); the meaning of the short tale told at the beginning of the mother in the river, and then the scales of the fish, the colours of the skin, etc. There is also the function of the language, which is actually always another spoken by another, brough forth by another.
I really loved the apparently random scenes. It felt really asiatic, really beautiful.
One should stop and think of the role that Das Bad plays; the meaning of the lack of tongue, the meaning of the unability to say "Ich" ("I"); the meaning of the short tale told at the beginning of the mother in the river, and then the scales of the fish, the colours of the skin, etc. There is also the function of the language, which is actually always another spoken by another, brough forth by another.
I really loved the apparently random scenes. It felt really asiatic, really beautiful.
July 15, 2023
Ein schwaches Buch. Wirre surrealistische Sprünge mit Schuppen, Fischen, Japanern und Deutschen, Toten, Ratten, Verbrennungen, einem Fotografenfreund, usw. Angestrengte Versuche von Sprachmagie, für mich eher Anfängerübungen. Ein bisschen Allgemeinwissen aus dem Lexikon («Der menschliche Körper soll zu 80% aus Wasser bestehen…», «Man sagt, dass ein Mensch stirbt, wenn ein Drittel seiner Haut verbrannt ist»). Man wartet vergeblich auf eine gute Seite…
Das Buch ist in der gedruckten Fassung schön gemacht.
Das Buch ist in der gedruckten Fassung schön gemacht.
April 4, 2021
perfect start, weird second to last chapter, good ending
September 5, 2023
Schön surreal.
December 13, 2015
Ich weiss nicht so recht, was ich ueber das Buch denken soll. Ich musste unwillkuerlich beim Lesen an Murakamis Surrealismus und an die kafkaeske Welt denken, doch hat mich der Erzaehlstil nicht ganz ueberzeugen koennen - auf mich haben einige Passagen etwas zu 'gewollt' gewirkt. Nichtsdestotrotz beruehrt das Buch einen bei fragwuerdigen Stellen, weshalb es dennoch eine Erfahrung wert ist!
August 4, 2011
Too experimental to me.
September 5, 2012
never too experimental for me!
beautiful ladyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
beautiful ladyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews