''The Passport'' (german: Der Mensch ist ein großer Fasan auf der Welt) is a novel by

Herta Müller Herta Müller (; born 17 August 1953) is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf (german: Nitzkydorf, link=no), Timiș County in Romania, her native language is G ...

, published in German in 1986. The German title (literally, "Man is a great

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera native range is restricted to Eurasia ...

in the world") refers to a saying in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. The novel, one of several for which the author was known when winning the Nobel in 2009, tells the story of a village miller in a German-speaking village in the

Banat Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...

in Romania, who applies for permission to emigrate to

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. The novel was published in English by

Serpent's Tail Serpent's Tail is London-based independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Pete Ayrton. It specialises in publishing work in translation, particularly European crime fiction. In January 2007, it was bought by a British publisher Profile Book ...

in 1989, the first of Müller's novels to be offered in direct translation.

Translations

*Müller, Herta (1986) ''Der Mensch ist ein großer Fasan auf der Welt''; Berlin:

Carl Hanser Verlag The Carl Hanser Verlag was founded in 1928 by Carl Hanser in Munich and is one of the few medium-sized publishing companies in the German-speaking area still owned by the founding family. History From the very beginning, the publishing house h ...

**(English) ''The Passport'' (September 1989); Translator: Martin Chalmers; London: Serpent's Tail; 96p. **(French) ''L'homme est un grand faisan sur terre'' (1988); Translator: Nicole Bary; Paris: Maren Sell; 124p. **(Serbian) ''Čovek je veliki fazan na ovom svetu'' (2011); Translator: Tijana Tropin; Belgrade: Zlatni Zmaj: Laguna; 150p. **(Spanish) ''El hombre es un gran faisán en el mundo'' (1992); Translator: Juan José del Solar; Madrid: Siruela; 128p. **(Swedish) ''Människan är en stor fasan på jorden: en berättelse'' (1987); Translator: Karin Löfdahl; Stockholm: Alba **(Czech) ''Cestovní pas'' (2010); Translator:

Radka Denemarková Radka Denemarková (born 14 March 1968 in Kutná Hora) is a Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One ...

; Prague: Mladá fronta; 112 p. **(Malayalam) ''Passport'' (2010); Translator: Dr. S. Sreenivasan; India: DC Books; 120p. **(Korean) ''인간은 이 세상의 거대한 꿩이다'' (2010); Translator: 김인순; Korea: Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.; 160p. **සිංහල -දඩබිමක සිරගතව (සජීවනි කස්තුරිආරච්චි)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Passport, The 1986 novels Transylvania in fiction Works by Herta Müller Novels set in Romania Carl Hanser Verlag books Serpent's Tail books