The Three Leaps of Wang Lun

“Döblin unfolds a colourful panorama, teeming with characters, changing landscapes and human activity, all revolving around Wang Lun and his ‘Three Leaps,’ the three pivotal moves he makes in his life…Reader prepared to immerse themselves in the noisy, bustling, exotic word of Döblin’s novel will be richly rewarded, for it is a challenging, absorbing and, above all, an entertaining book.” —Times Literary Supplement

“Without the futurist elements of Döblin’s work from Wang Lun to Berlin Alexanderplatz, my prose is inconceivable…He’ll discomfort you, give you bad dreams. If you’re satisfied with yourself, beware of Döblin.” —Günter Grass

“I learned more about the essence of the epic from Döblin than from anyone else. His epic writing and even his theory about the epic strongly influenced my own dramatic art.” —Bertolt Brecht

“I consider Döblin’s 1915 novel, The Three Leaps of Wang Lun, the best contemporary German novel by far. It exhibits an entirely superior, most rare, talent. It is true art.” —Max Horkheimer

“Doblin knew precious little about China when he started his ‘big book’; he was mainly attracted by the idea of an entirely exotic non-Western non-modern society, and he researched as he went along. But he caught something very real of that peculiarly bookish tenor of Chinese literature that winds its echoes through much of the vast canon.” —Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly

Praise for the Calligrams series:

“All things must have their beginnings, and this beginning of the ‘Calligram’ imprint is quite promising…These are inviting volumes. Their invitation is threefold, three volumes to kick off a series that deserves a long life and a wide readership.” —Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly