[Gocamino] Another multi-million seller Camino book

[Rebekah Scott]

An English translation of the Kerkeling is expected later this year. 
Meantime, the Camino is flooded with Germans inspired to take the pilgrimage via the comic best-seller, a wave similar to the massive mystical Brazilian invasion launched by Coelho. I walked during the Brazilian wave, and found the Brazilians a vivacious, happy pilgrim family. 

I´ve always also been somewhat fond of German pilgrims, as I can communicate with them. But this year seems to have brought a load of really badly-behaved Germans, too... the book described "free" municipal albergues and described amorous young peregrinas on the hunt for German men. You can imagine the kind of people who felt compelled to head for Spain to get a piece of that kind of "action." 

Makes you wonder what´s next! 

Rebekah Scott 
www.moratinoslife.blogspot.com

Rebekah Scott 
www.moratinoslife.blogspot.com


--- On Mon, 6/2/08, Rosina <blaroli at aol.com> wrote:

> From: Rosina <blaroli at aol.com>
> Subject: [Gocamino] Another  multi-million seller Camino book
> To: GOCAMINO at oakapple.net, saintjames at yahoogroups.com
> Cc: acaciopaz at yahoo.com.br
> Date: Monday, June 2, 2008, 7:35 PM
> 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
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