Michael Kimball

The Way the Family Got Away has been translated into
Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese.



How Much of Us There Was is forthcoming in Italian and Spanish.

"[The Way the Family Got Away] is one of the best works
that the States has produced in these last years."
"E, infine, quella che molti pensano sia una delle migliori
opere che gli States ci hanno dato in questi ultimi anni."
--Storie, Andrea Marti

"An absolutely unexpected novel, terrible and fascinating."
"Un romanzo assolutamente inaspettato, terribile e affascinante."
--Io Donna, Marzio G. Mian

"Kimball reveals himself as amazingly good in filtering the desolate
landscape of America, halfway between the movies of David Lynch
and The Grapes of Wrath. … he has a gifted vision … a hallucinatory power"
"Kimball si rivela un mostro dibravura a filtrare la landa desolata di
quest'America, a meta fra Lynch e “Furore. … he un dono di visione
… a dir poco allucinatoria"
--Gazzetta Di Parma, Stefano Lecchini

"The child narrator’s metaphysical scream reverberates in the emptiness of history."
"Dal loro urlo metafisico rintronante dentro il vuoto della storia."
--L’Unita, Alberto Rolla

"A novel that is as disquieting as a Gothic Novel
and at the same time unveils a powerful imagination."
"Un romanzo che inquieta come un gotico e al tempo
stesso dispiega la potenza dell’immaginazione."
--Diario, Alessandra Orsi

"Michael Kimball is one of those hypnotic pied pipers
who gets under the skin of the reader, taking him to a place in the soul
from where it is impossible to escape until the spell is finished."
"Michael Kimball E uno di quei pifferai ipnotici che arriva fin sotto
la pelle del lettore, trascinandolo in un luogo dell’anima da dove
e impossibile uscire finche l’incantesimo non e finito."
--Libri, Antonella Fiori

"Another author of this young cult is the American Michael Kimball …
The Way the Family Got Away has the evocative powers of the [American]
townscape and reminds one of the atmostphere of director’s such as David Lynch."
"Altro giovane di culto-novita di stagione e l’americano Michael Kimball …
E allora siamo andati via storia che per la potenza evocative degli scenari
rimanda alle atmosfere di un regista come David Lynch."
--La Republica, Antonella Fiori

"The imaginative difficulties of writing about childhood using only
the intellectual resources of childhood are extreme. …
A moving, heartbreaking, visceral story that is never sentimental. …
It is even more extraordinary the way this obsessive, repetitive death language—
that is the true invention of this novel—makes the feeling
and the sentiment of a child come alive. A profound emotion comes to life,
an emotion of compassion."
"Le difficolta imaginative di scrivere dell’infanzia usando solo le resorse
intellettuali dell’infanzia sono estreme. … un raccontro viscerale, spezzacuore,
commovente, mai sentimentale. … E percio tanto piu straordinario come
dalla lingua ossessiva, ripetitiva, morta—che e la vera invenzione di questo
romanzo—preda vita un pensiero, il pensiero, il sentimento del bambino.
E nasca un’emozione profonda: l’emozione della pieta."
--La Repubblica, Nadia Fusini

"The Way the Family Got Away is a sophisticated American tale."
"E allora siamo andati via e una raffinata favola Americana."
--Il Giorno, Gianni Buosi

“so deathly sad that it hurts”
“so todraurig, dass es einem weh tut”
--taz, Frank Schafer

“A short book with a long echo.”
“Ein kurzes Buch mit langem Nachhall.”
--Goetheanum, Monika Hahn

“It’s worth it to read this novel even if it isn’t easy to read
… a remarkable literary debut.”
“Das macht seinen Text eindringlich und das Elend auf eine
bedruckende Weise erlebbar … auch wenn er nicht leicht zu lessen ist.”
--Welt und Sonntag

“Kimball has written a book that is impressive
in its radical use of language and thematics.”
“Erfolgreich wagt Kimball das Experiment, jedem
Kind seine jeweils eigene, hochst eindringliche Sprache ze geben”
--Berliner Morgenpost

“Like an amputated school essay, the children narrators
explain how children are made, how the world is held together …
despite the difficult theme and the unusual approach,
the novel is amusing and intense and not at all childlike.”
“Wie in amputierten Schulaufsatzen erklaren die Kids,
wie man Kinder macht, die Welt aushalt, Kleider gegen die Hitze
tragt und schlieBlich ein Begrabnis macht … Und trotz des schweren
Themas und des ungewohnlichen Spielansatzes ist der Roman lustig
und spannend und uberhaupt nicht babyhaft.”
--Gegenwartsliteratur, Helmuth Schonauer

“impressively unsentimental”
“beeindruckend unsentimentale”
--Der Bund Bern, Simone Von Buren

“Kimball’s pair of children narrators are precocious and skewed.”
“Kimballs Geschwisterpaar erzahlt altklug, schrag, naseweis.”
--Heilbronner Stimme, Von Michaela Adick

“A virtuously constructed fictional language that captures the fantasies
of the children narrators, their experiences, their fears.”
“Eine virtuos konstruierte Kunstsprache, die die Fantasien
der Kinder, ihr Erieben, ihre Angste einfangt.”
--Der Westfalischer Anzeiger, Von Ralf Stiftel