German Book Prize 2010: The Longlist

The list of 20 titles nominated for this year's German Book Prize is now out, catching me rather on the hop. Here they are:

Alina Bronsky, Die schärfsten Gerichte der tatarischen Küche (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, August 2010)

Jan Faktor, Georgs Sorgen um die Vergangenheit oder im Reich des heiligen Hodensack-Bimbams von Prag (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, March 2010)

Nino Haratischwili, Juja (Verbrecher Verlag, March 2010)

Thomas Hettche, Die Liebe der Väter (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, August 2010)

Michael Kleeberg, Das amerikanische Hospital (DVA, August 2010)

Michael Köhlmeier, Madalyn (Carl Hanser Verlag, August 2010)

Thomas Lehr, September. Fata Morgana (Carl Hanser Verlag, August 2010)

Mariana Leky, Die Herrenausstatterin (DuMont Buchverlag, February 2010)

Nicol Ljubić, Meeresstille (Hoffmann und Campe, February 2010)

Kristof Magnusson, Das war ich nicht (Verlag Antje Kunstmann, January 2010)

Andreas Maier, Das Zimmer (Suhrkamp Verlag, September 2010)

Olga Martynova, Sogar Papageien überleben uns (Droschl Literaturverlag, January 2010)

Martin Mosebach, Was davor geschah (Carl Hanser Verlag, August 2010)

Melinda Nadj Abonji, Tauben fliegen auf (Jung und Jung Verlag, August 2010)

Doron Rabinovici, Andernorts (Suhrkamp Verlag, August 2010)

Hans Joachim Schädlich, Kokoschkins Reise (Rowohlt Verlag, March 2010)

Andreas Schäfer, Wir vier (DuMont Buchverlag, February 2010)

Peter Wawerzinek, Rabenliebe (Galiani Berlin, August 2010)

Judith Zander, Dinge, die wir heute sagten (Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, September 2010)

Joachim Zelter, Der Ministerpräsident (Klöpfer & Meyer Verlag, August 2010)

A few surprises there, and a few publishers will be cracking open the champagne, either for making it onto the list at all as indies or for multiple nominations. You can download samples from all the books at libreka and selected bookshops should have the lovely booklet of extracts from next week. Goethe-Institut branches in Athens, Stockholm, Budapest, Dublin and Thessaloniki will be hosting literary blind date events with the finalists.

And yes, I shall take it upon myself to plough through all the extracts and provide a lowdown on the titles before the shortlist comes out on 8 September. Wish me luck!