[Gocamino] Another multi-million seller Camino book

[Rosina]

Hello you all,

El Correo Gallego, the Galician newspaper, carries an article today about another multi-million-copies best seller Camino book.

The book is called, in German, “Ich bin dann mal weg” (On my way [to the Camino]), was written by a German humorist, Hape Kerkeling, and it has sold more than three million copies already. Since its publication in May, 2006, the book has been in first or second place in the best-seller nonfiction category lists published by the German newspapers.  Its success was totally unexpected since the original issue was only 50,000 copies.

 The author of the book is a well-known TV comedian who went to the Camino to try to cope with a serious personal crisis.  While he took his pilgrimage seriously he couldn’t help portray his efforts and experiences as a pilgrim, and those of other pilgrims, in caricature form in his book.

The book became an immediate success with its readers, although it was panned by literary critics. The chief editor of the magazine “Literaturen”, Sigrid Loffler, herself a Camino pilgrim, had written a book about the pilgrimage which even although it was  published by the prestigious firm Cees Nooteboom received little notice. Freulein Loffler confesses to being perplexed by the exit of Kerkeling’s Camino book adding that: “first Coelho wrote an idiotic book about the Camino and the book was a tremendous success, and now Kerkeling writes an even more idiotic book about the pilgrimage and it is a smash”.

Personally, I disliked Coelho’s book and did not get beyond the first ten pages or so…. Why it has sold more than fifty million copies in umpteen languages is a total mystery to me…. If the German book is in the same vein I doubt very much that I would bother with it….. nevertheless, when I am in Germany next August (for the Bayreuth Wagner Festival……..hurrah!!!) I’ll look around to see whether the book has been translated into English or into a more accessible language. Bayreuth, by the way, is a tiny, beautiful Bavarian town, with the most important opera house in the universe, built by Richard Wagner himself,  another lovely rococo theatre…. -so beautiful, in fact. that neither the Nazis nor the Allies had the heart to destroy it in WW II….. although they destroyed almost everything else, including Wahnfried!-, a university, and about twenty bookstores! (I understand that the permanent residents of the town number about 5,000).

I’ll let you know whether there are any translations.

Hugs!

Rosina