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 adventurerin 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 inthe 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.