Six novels shortlisted for the $41,800 German Book Prize

Admin I Tuesday, Sept 17, 2024

 

BERLIN – The six finalists for the German Book Prize, among the highest honours for German-language novels, were announced in Frankfurt on Tuesday.

The novels from authors Martina Hefter, Maren Kames, Clemens Meyer, Ronya Othmann, Markus Thielemann and Iris Wolff deal with recent history, war, violence and love.

The winner of the prize will be announced on October 14, and the award is traditionally presented the day before the start of the Frankfurt Book Fair, a major international gathering for the publishing industry.

A longlist of 20 authors was published in August.
“For the shortlist of the German Book Prize 2024, we have selected novels that explore the light and darkness of our recent history in a new way, that also cross borders in terms of narrative and are great literary adventures,” said jury spokeswoman Natascha Freundel.

All six of the novelists on the shortlist have published multiple books, and several have already won a number of awards.

Perhaps the best-known is Clemens Meyer, whose novel “Im Stein” (“In Stone”) was previously shortlisted for the German Book Prize. He also won the Leipzig Book Fair Prize for his short story collection, “Die Nacht, die Lichter” (“The Night, the Lights”).

His work “Die Projektoren” (“The Projectionists”) is about the wars in the 1990s in what was then Yugoslavia, but also about German-produced Wild West films that were once shot there in the 1960s in what is now Croatia.

Iris Wolff embeds her novel “Lichtungen” (“Clearings”) in European history at the end of the 20th century, shortly after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Like the author, the two main characters come from the Transylvania region of Romania and experience the upheaval in very different ways.

In “Vierundsiebzig” (“74”), Ronya Othmann focuses on the genocide of the Yazidis and follows the traces of the crime committed by the terrorist organisation Islamic State.

Markus Thielemann’s second novel “Von Norden rollt ein Donner” (“Thunder Rolls from the North”) is about an almost forgotten concentration camp, among other things.

“Hasenprosa” (“Rabbit Prose”) by Maren Kames is a fantastic and bizarre literary journey about a hare as a companion who, according to the jury, acts as a mixture of anarchist and petty accountant.

In “Hey guten Morgen, wie geht es dir?” (“Hey good morning, how are you?”), Martina Hefter tells the story of performance artist Juni who develops a real relationship with an online lovescammer.

The coveted award is being presented for the 20th time this year. The seven-member jury reviewed a total of 197 novels from Germany, Austria and Switzerland published since October 2023.

The book prize is awarded by the foundation of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association and is endowed with a total of €37,500 (about $41,800), with the winner receiving €25,000 and other shortlisted authors €2,500 each.

In 2023, the Austrian author Tonio Schachinger was honoured for his novel “Echtzeitalter” (“Real Times”).