A good read
August 20, 2009
After perusing some 150 titles, the jury of this year's German Book Prize reached a list of what it considers to be the 20 best German-language novels published this year:
• Sibylle Berg: "Der Mann schlaeft" (Hanser, August 2009)
• Mirko Bonne: "Wie wir verschwinden" (Schoeffling & Co., February 2009)
• Thomas Glavinic: "Das Leben der Wuensche" (Hanser, August 2009)
• Wolf Haas: "Der Brenner und der liebe Gott" (Hoffmann und Campe, August 2009)
• Ernst-Wilhelm Haendler: "Welt aus Glas" (Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, September 2009)
• Anna-Katharina Hahn: "Kuerzere Tage" (Suhrkamp, March 2009)
• Reinhard Jirgl: "Die Stille" (Hanser, March 2009)
• Brigitte Kronauer: "Zwei schwarze Jaeger" (Klett-Cotta, August 2009)
• Rainer Merkel: "Lichtjahre entfernt" (S. Fischer, March 2009)
• Terezia Mora: "Der einzige Mann auf dem Kontinent" (Luchterhand, August 2009)
• Herta Mueller: "Atemschaukel" (Hanser, August 2009)
• Angelika Overath: "Flughafenfische" (Luchterhand, May 2009)
• Norbert Scheuer: "Ueberm Rauschen" (C. H. Beck, June 2009)
• Kathrin Schmidt: "Du stirbst nicht" (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, February 2009)
• Clemens J. Setz: "Die Frequenzen" (Residenz, February 2009)
• Peter Stamm: "Sieben Jahre" (S. Fischer, August 2009)
• Thomas Stangl: "Was kommt" (Droschl, January 2009)
• Stephan Thome: "Grenzgang" (Suhrkamp, August 2009)
• David Wagner: "Vier Aepfel" (Rowohlt, September 2009)
• Norbert Zaehringer: "Einer von vielen" (Rowohlt, July 2009)
The winner of the German Book Prize, which is endowed with 25,000 euros ($35,400), will be announced on Oct. 12 at the beginning of the annual Frankfurt Book Fair.
Made up of seven writers and journalists, the jury will present a short list of books on Sept. 16. Those six authors receive 2,500 euros each.
The prize, in its fifth year, is sponsored by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association and is considered one of the highest honors in the German literary scene. As was the case with last year's winner, "The Tower: Tales from a Lost Land" by Uwe Tellkamp, the prize-winning novel is guaranteed to become a bestseller.
Author: Elena Singer (kjb)
Editor: Sean Sinico