German Book Prize Longlist

The longlist for this year's German Book Prize was announced yesterday, and I'm very pleased to see a wide range of younger and more established writers, major and smaller publishers, etc. - although in comparison to last year's longlist this one looks rather less international in terms of writers' backgrounds. I've only read one of the titles so far - the excellent In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts, one of at least three debut novels on the list. But I have two of the others in my possession and have translated two of the other writers and know two others personally and have never heard of about five of them. You can download samples from all the nominated books free of charge from libreka.de - or check German bookshops for those usually elusive free brochures. I shall read all the samples and put together a few sentences about all of them before the shortlist comes out on 14 September.

So here they are in all their glory:

• Volker Harry Altwasser, Letzte Fischer (Matthes und Seitz Berlin, September 2011)

• Jan Brandt, Gegen die Welt (DuMont, August 2011)

• Michael Buselmeier, Wunsiedel (Das Wunderhorn, March 2011)

• Alex Capus, Léon und Louise (Hanser, February 2011)

• Wilhelm Genazino, Wenn wir Tiere wären (Hanser, July 2011)

• Navid Kermani, Dein Name (Hanser, August 2011)

• Esther Kinsky, Banatsko (Matthes und Seitz Berlin, January 2011)

• Angelika Klüssendorf, Das Mädchen (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, August 2011)

• Doris Knecht, Gruber geht (Rowohlt.Berlin, March 2011)

• Peter Kurzeck, Vorabend (Stroemfeld, March 2011)

• Ludwig Laher, Verfahren (Haymon, February 2011)

• Sibylle Lewitscharoff, Blumenberg (Suhrkamp, September 2011)

• Thomas Melle, Sickster (Rowohlt.Berlin, September 2011)

• Klaus Modick, Sunset (Eichborn, February 2011)

• Astrid Rosenfeld, Adams Erbe (Diogenes, February 2011)

• Eugen Ruge, In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts (Rowohlt, September 2011)

• Judith Schalansky, Der Hals der Giraffe (Suhrkamp, September 2011)

• Jens Steiner, Hasenleben (Dörlemann, February 2011)

• Marlene Streeruwitz, Die Schmerzmacherin (S. Fischer, September 2011)

• Antje Rávic Strubel, Sturz der Tage in die Nacht (S. Fischer, August 2011)