Thursday 11 February 2010

Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair: Nominations

The shortlist is out for Germany's big spring book awards.

We have only five titles, one of which I've read so far.

Jan Faktor, Georgs Sorgen um die Vergangenheit oder Im Reich des heiligen Hodensack-Bimbams von Prag - not out until March, but Faktor is a great writer who plays with language most impressively. The book is about growing up in socialist Prague and sounds like great stuff.

Helene Hegemann, Axolotl Roadkill - need I say more?

Georg Klein, Roman unserer Kindheit - this time a fantastic story of growing up in smalltown southern Germany.

Lutz Seiler, Die Zeitwaage - short stories from a hugely talented poet.

Anne Weber, Luft und Liebe - a twist on a love story by a novelist and translator who writes in French and German, highly recommended to me just the other day.

There are also prizes for non-fiction and translation - the nominees being Ulrich Blumenbach for DF Wallace's Infinite Jest, Christian Hansen for Bolano's 2666, Grete Osterwald for Hédi Kaddour's Waltenberg, Rosemarie Tietze for a new version of Anna Karenina, and Hubert Witt for Abraham Sutzkever's Wilner Getto 1941–1944 – Gesänge vom Meer des Todes.

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