Monday 12 October 2009

German Book Prize Goes to Kathrin Schmidt

And you can read an English extract from her excellent book, Du stirbst nicht, on sign and sight. The translator is John Reddick, and the book tells the story of woman recovering from a ruptured aneurysm, who struggles to regain her memory in hospital only to find that everything is not as rosy as it seems.

Schmidt is a trained psychologist and studied at the renowned Johannes R. Becher literary institute in Leipzig in the GDR. She experienced her character's fate herself seven years ago, which may well be one reason why her novel is a very sensitive and touching piece of writing.

In her brief speech at the awards ceremony, she said she was very surprised and it hadn't yet sunk in - and she was actually much happier about Herta Müller's Nobel Prize than her own award so far. Schmidt was just half a percent behind Müller's Atemschaukel in an online poll by the trade mag Börsenblatt.

Congratulations!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am more than satisfied with that choice for I liked that book very much. :)