The Birds in Langfoot's Belfry

Paul Zech is best known as a representative of German literary movements such as Worker's Poetry and Expressionism. However, his novel Die Voegel des Herrn Langfoot, detailing the adventures of a foot-loose German adventurer in Argentina, shows him equally at home in the medium of prose. Contemporary critics hailed Zech as the first author to capture the exotic flavour of South America; during his exile, he continually explored the country of his asylum in his writings, describing the colourful aspects of South American life and retelling Indian folk tales for a European audience. Nevertheless, this novel failed to make much impact in Germany; first published posthumously in the 1950s, its author's reputation, established during the first quarter of the century, had been forgotten, and it was not until the 1970s that a resurgence of interest in the work occurred. Elena Odio's translation now makes this important work available in English for the first time.