Charles Linsmayer | A global coordinate grid

“19/21 Synchron global” offers the reader a whole host of options to chart their own course through the names, themes and stories in the book. The publisher has established a broad platform on which to base the journey: stretching from Akhmatova to Tsvetaeva (in German: Zwetajewa) alphabetically – there is a considerable timespan between the two contemporaries – from Victor Hugo (*1802) to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (*1977). The stories start with Richard Wright and end with David Malouf, with a cultural world tour in between. Moreover, Linsmayer does not necessarily select the most prominent texts; instead, he prefers pieces that fit smoothly with his thematic structure. The 20 chapters cover all the basic topics from birth to death, from the seriousness of war to cheeky satire, with motifs including magic, nature and the animal world. Linsmayer’s intent is neither to create a new canon nor to achieve completeness. The collection contains literary testimonies that he considers important. His own perspective is integral to that, as he writes in the epilogue, as a publisher faced with the wealth of “world literature” is “ultimately reliant on their own literary experiences and subjective perception”. The brief biographies of the authors in the appendix are as personal as they are pointed, each illustrated with a drawing by Claudio Fedrigo.

“19/21 Synchron global” would make a good small literary compendium. However, the essence of the book lies in its many literary “amuse-bouches” in the form of extracts from his favourite works. Richard Wright’s “Black Boy” is definitely worth (re)reading to close the circle.

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