Katrin: The Tale of a Young Writer

by Unica Zürn

Unica Zürn tells the story of fifteen-year-old motherless Katrin, an aspiring writer, who lives with her father, also a writer. The novel is set in an imaginary world, a metropolis called Linit, split into three levels: Oberstadt (Hightown), Mittelstadt (Middletown) and Unterstadt (Lowtown), overlooked by a Volcano where the artists live and crossed by the river Emil. Presented as a book for children, apparently written for her own daughter (named Katrin), Katrin also draws on the personal biography of Zürn herself, in terms of her relationship with her father and the city of Berlin after WWII, and her experience with people on the margins of a society characterised by great tensions.

176 pages, Paperback

Published July 8, 2024

About the author

Unica Zürn was a German author and painter. She is remembered for her works of anagram poetry, exhibitions of automatic drawing, and her photographic collaborations with Hans Bellmer.

Reviews

[Bill Hsu · Rating 2 out of 5]

This predates Zürn's surrealist writings. It's her attempt at what we'd call a YA novel, for 50s Germany. It's pretty odd, with a number of head-scratching moments. Not surprisingly, there's a dominating and problematic father. But is it worth the time for even a Zürn fan like me? I'm not sure.

[Avery Marley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unica Zürn’s Crackers is a hauntingly intimate glimpse into a young girl’s life, both imagined and autobiographical. Written for her ten-year-old daughter in 1953 but never published in her lifetime, this first English translation captures the surrealist sensibility and psychological depth that mark Zürn’s work.

Through fifteen year old Katrin, we encounter a city of contrasts, Linit, with its layered Oberstadt, Mittelstadt, and Unterstadt, where personal ambition, familial tension, and societal margins intersect. Katrin’s story is deceptively simple, yet layered with the emotional complexity and surrealist undertones that reflect Zürn’s own struggles and experiences in postwar Berlin and Paris.

The novel’s power lies in its quiet intensity: the portrait of a young aspiring writer navigating grief, creativity, and isolation is rendered with both tenderness and unnerving depth. Zürn’s unique voice, informed by her life as an artist and her battles with mental illness, makes this a work that lingers long after the last page. Crackers is a remarkable addition to the canon of surrealist literature and a testament to the resilience of imagination in the face of adversity.

[Lou Corn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. For a young reader like Rilke’s book is for a young poet. It reminded me a lot as well of Lesabendio, two microworlds oriented around a vertical axis where a cast of characters debate the possibility of artistic autonomy and hurt each others feelings and get into hijinks and end up somewhere new.