Hi, I just wanted to ask, what are the books you recommend to read to understand this work more?
Quite a lot. Here is a list of a few recommended writers and poets. The hard ones are marked specially as a way to further understanding on abstract contemporary literature. And sorry for such a late reply. I've been on an internship for these months. These categories are divided based on how the authors are perceived by us.
-----------------------
Playwriters:
Peter Handke
Elfriede Jelinek (hard)
-----------------------
Novelists:
Nathalie Sarraute
Herta Müller (our favorite)
László Krasznahorkai (for Sátántangó)
Imre Kertész
Mikhail Shishkin
-----------------------
Poets:
Paul Celan (our favorite, and very hard)
Elizabeth Bishop
Yves Bonnefoy
Phillippe Jaccottet (has a similar style to the first section)
Anne Carson (quite hard)
Oskar Pastior (the hardest on the list)
-----------------------
Others:
Annie Erneaux
Jean Baudrillard
-----------------------
Austrian State Prize for European Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature, The Booker Prizes, Büchner Prize are all generally good standards for choosing a good author. Try following those. I MUST be missing a lot of good writers. DO NOT TAKE ANYONE NOT ON THIS LIST AS A SIGN OF DISRECOMMENDATION!
Frankly I am jealous of how fast books are published in English. The Chinese translators are never fast enough. Read more and be grateful that you have such a wide range of options right on the bookshelf. This list really should go on and on and on.
Paul Celan's "Mohn und Gedächtnis", "Von Schwelle zu Schwelle", "Sprachgitter", "Die Niemandsrose", "Atemwende", "Fadensonnen", "Lichtzwang", "Schneepart" and "Zeitgehöft". Of course, this is basically his works in the order of publishment, because Celan's ash-colored language is vital to understand Ash Boat. If you do not have much time, you can try the first three in that order. They are all collections of poems, and thus shouldn't take too much time to read. Though, you may prefer to read it for several times or find comments to help you.
And Anne Carson's work, let's say, "Autobiography of Red". Anne is Canadian and writes in English, so her work should be easier to read than say, Paul's.
Finally, we are planning to make other (easier) difficulty options. This is actually already done in Chinese version, but alas I do not have the time to translate it into English. I am already finding substitutes to help me with the translation process, but other than that I'm afraid the English version might have to be postponed for a while.
And thanks for liking Ash Boat. We will strive to make it better!