Tuesday 13 September 2011

Thunder-Stealing Shortlist

They announced the six-title shortlist for the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize today, just one day before the German Book Prize shortlist comes out. Here it is:

Angelika Klüssendorf: Das Mädchen (Kiepenheuer & Witsch)

Michael Kumpfmüller: Die Herrlichkeit des Lebens (Kiepenheuer & Witsch)

Sibylle Lewitscharoff: Blumenberg (Suhrkamp)

Klaus Modick: Sunset (Eichborn)

Judith Schalansky: Der Hals der Giraffe (Suhrkamp)

Uwe Timm: Freitisch (Kiepenheuer & Witsch)

The winner will be announced on 7 October, just five days before the German Book Prize is awarded. And in fact they get a generous €30,000 (rather than €25,000 for the GBP, although all the shortlisted writers get €2500 there as well). You might notice that four of the six titles are also longlisted for the GBP. And several of the judges have done the GBP thing in the past too (although I'm guessing that the pool of people willing and able to judge literary prizes is limited). Pretty much the only difference is that the German Book Prize makes a heck of a lot more noise about itself, especially internationally.

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