A mother and her two children – one boy, one girl – are waiting for the father to come home. She has prepared an enormous bowl of mussels for her husband; she doesn't care much for them herself, she ...

Birgit Vanderbeke is an award-winning German author who now lives in France. The Mussel Feast, the English translation of her debut novel by Jamie Bulloch, was published by Peirene Press last year and ...

Peirene publish distinctive European literary fiction in translation, by authors who are award-winners or best-sellers in their countries of origin. Birgit Vanderbeke is no exception. Her debut novel ...

In a Berlin apartment, a woman scrubs four kilos of mussels and places them in a heavy pot to cook as she and her two teenagers wait for the father to return. The meal is his favourite, and she has ...

Revolutions can occur in the most extraordinary places ... and in the most extraordinary ways. Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Lancashire Evening Post, you can get unlimited access to the ...

Father wants to eat mussels — and the rest of the family obeys. As per usual. Set in postwar Germany, "The Mussel Feast" by Birgit Vanderbeke shows the true colors of a small family.