So here you are:
Mirko
Bonné: Nie mehr Nacht
An artist
and his nephew travel to France, dealing in parallel with the boy’s mother’s
suicide and all the young men who died when the Allies landed in 1944. I admire
Bonné’s prose a great deal and I think the novel is probably well-structured
too. Thoughtful, reflective, well-written. This is one of my favourites;
reviews have been good.
Sample
sentence: “Ira called the house her fossilization.”
Non-USPs: Dead
character, artist character, (mental) health issues, three-word title, writer
also translates, writer also a poet, German-speakers abroad, family matters
Ralph
Dutli: Soutines letzte Fahrt
A novel
about the Jewish painter Chaim Soutine in occupied France, 1943. He is sick and
remembering his life in a morphine-induced delirium. The subject feels a little
specialised, but I suppose it explores art and exile and sickness via a single
life. The extract felt to me rather bitty and pretentious, laying it on a
little too thick for my taste. Too much mustard, if you get what I mean. Reviews
have been very enthusiastic though.
Sample
sentence: “A sharp click like from a gun, a dry snapping into the waiting
lock.”
Non-USPs: (Mental)
health issues, three-word title, writer also translates, writer also a poet, artist
character, framing device
Thomas
Glavinic: Das größere Wunder
I’m not a
fan of Glavinic’s writing. I find it kind of middlebrow, exploring simple ideas
in too long a format, and this seems to fall into the same category. A man
climbs Mount Everest and remembers his life – perhaps I’m missing something but
I found the extract slightly kitsch and not all that promising, personally. Reviews
have been mixed; critics have been confirming the kitsch and clichés but liking
it nevertheless.
Sample
sentence: “For Jonas, time had its own smell, the way it had its own mood and a
few characteristic images.”
Non-USPs: Three-word
title, German-speakers abroad, love story, framing device, trilogy, family
matters
Norbert
Gstrein: Eine Ahnung vom Anfang
A teacher
thinks he recognises an extremist with a bomb in the newspaper as his former
favourite pupil. Cue confusing memories. Gstrein writes in a very ambitious
style, and I appreciate that. There’s little explaining; the story seems to
tell itself. The extract made me curious and reviews have been good.
Sample
sentence: “The route disappears into the hill immediately after that, to
protect the village from traffic noise, and one can watch for ever as the
tunnel swallows up car after car like a giant maw.”
Non-USPs: Framing
device, teacher character
Reinhard
Jirgl: Nichts von euch auf Erden
In the 23rd
century, humankind has settled Mars and the Earth has regressed, but then the
Mars people come back to kick a bit of shape into the Earth people. Also some
fun ideas about sex in the future, which I think I heard him read in Leipzig in
the spring. A very odd book that, as with all of Jirgl’s writing, challenges
the reader (although the extract doesn’t feature his special orthography). Big
big stuff, I suspect too big for me, and too much for a number of reviewers as
well. But you have to respect the guy for it.
Sample
sentence: “These artificial membranes – called the imagospheres – consist of
thin, extremely resistant, electrically conductive woven fibreglass.”
Non-USPs: Genre as
high lit, German-speakers abroad
Daniel Kehlmann:
F
I’m sorry, but
I have an irrational dislike of Daniel Kehlmann; he’s just one of those
writers. Three brothers, truth and lies, family, forgery, fiction and filosophy.
All the Fs, you see. I can’t tell much from the extract other than it’s trying
to build up tension, and reviews have been mixed. Some critics love it, others
are harder on him for not going deeply enough into the issues he tries to
raise. I won’t be reading it but it’ll no doubt be translated. Readers who like
this book will also like… Jonathan Franzen.
Sample
sentence: “Years later – they were all grown up and each entangled in his own
misfortune – none of Arthur Friedland’s sons remembered whose idea it had been
to visit the hypnotist that afternoon.”
Non-USPs: Family
matters, one-word title
Judith
Kuckart: Wünsche
A woman
finds someone else’s stuff and escapes the German provinces to London with a
stolen identity, while someone else opens up a department store called
“Wishes”. I rather liked the extract, its jerky rhythm and special charm. There
are a lot of contradictions in a small space, and critics have said it’s a
clever, melancholy novel with the kind of flaws you can overlook, about how
wishes don’t make anyone happy.
Sample
sentence: “Or perhaps it’s the fault of the way Vera sits on the teacher’s desk
during lessons and crosses her legs when she asks the hordes of
eighteen-year-old painters and decorators, plumbers, bricklayers and carpenters
how they imagine life at thirty.”
Non-USPs: Teacher
character, provinces, German-speakers abroad, family matters, one-word title
Olaf Kühl:
Der wahre Sohn
A sort of
detective ends up in the Ukraine and gets drawn into a strange family, whose
son is in a mental hospital and obsessed with his missing nanny and violent
Ukrainian history. Gorgeous long and short sentences in the extract, very sharp
prose. No reviews as the book’s not out for a couple of days, but I know I’m
quite intrigued. Promisingly non-clichéd, especially as the writer really knows
his stuff as a translator of some great Polish writers.
Sample
sentence: “Reaching for the packed bag, not enough sleep but awake anyway and a
little bit like hungover, even though not much was drunk the night before,
slamming the front door and going down the stairs, through that smell of floor
polish and indefinable stew, throwing the bag on the back seat of the car, one
last look up at the windows on the third floor (…).”
Non-USPs: Genre as
high lit, writer also a translator, German-speakers abroad, family matters,
(mental) health issues, three-word title, place as character
Dagmar
Leupold: Unter der Hand
Good grief.
A rich Italian man pays a German lady writer to write, providing she brings
people joy. So she tells her life story in a fairytale manner, apparently, and
a neighbour finds the manuscript alongside her dead body. I disliked the style
and found the premise too contrived. Also, I don’t think literature needs to
make anyone happy in such a simplistic manner (although perhaps that’s the
moral of the story, but I still don’t want to read a book to find that out).
There haven’t been many reviews.
Sample
sentence: “Minna is lying on her bed with a bedspread over it, wearing a white
man’s shirt and tight black trousers.”
Non-USPs: Framing
device, writer also a translator, three-word title, love story
Jonas Lüscher:
Frühling der Barbaren
A Swiss
businessman witnesses London stockbrokers celebrating in Tunisia, and then
comes the crash and brings them down with it, far from home. And tells the
story inside a mental institution, I believe. I liked the extract a lot – it
hints at complexity, intelligence and wit, in a strangely old-fashioned
diction. And I like the idea of trying to tackle political and social issues in
fiction. Reviews have been excellent; it’s another of my favourites.
Sample
sentence: “Preising was still in demand as the face of the company, though,
because Prodanovic knew if there was one thing Preising could do, it was giving
an impression of consistency, the unshakable spirit of a family company in the
fourth generation.”
Non-USPs: Debut
novel, German-speakers abroad, three-word title, social/political issues,
(mental) health issues, framing device, place as character
Clemens
Meyer: Im Stein
This is the
best novel on the list and ought to win. Reviews have been awe-struck.
Sample
sentence: “And I stand by the window and push the slats of the blind apart with
my fingers and look at the houses on the other side of the road, the sun behind
them turning red now and the night coming up.”
Non-USPs: Social/political issues, dead character (briefly), genre as high-lit (sometimes), place as character
Joachim
Meyerhoff: Wann wird es endlich wieder so, wie es nie war
The actor
Joachim Meyerhoff is writing his life story with a twinkle in his eye, and this
is the second part. He grew up inside a mental institution, which his father
ran. The writing is fun, light and entertaining but raises some serious issues.
It won’t win but it’s well worth reading. Reviews have said pretty much the
same thing.
Sample
sentence: “His feet and calves were on the grass, the rest of his body in the
flowerbed.”
Non-USPs: Dead
character, (mental) health issues, trilogy, family matters, provinces,
autobiography
Terézia
Mora: Das Ungeheuer
Darius
Kopp’s Hungarian wife has died and he’s trying to dispose of her ashes
illegally on a journey around Europe. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the pages, he
reads her diary. I’ve heard Mora read from the novel twice now and have been
very impressed. Great tone, marvellous structure, complex language, very sad.
Only just out but great reviews. Another of my favourites.
Sample
sentence: “What are you laughing at, hyenas, who are you anyway, what are you
doing here, Juri, for God’s sake, you swine!”
Non-USPs: Dead
character, place as character, German-speakers abroad, trilogy, love story,
writer also a translator
Marion
Poschmann: Die Sonnenposition
I’m reading
this novel at the moment, and enjoying every sentence. A psychiatrist in a
mental institution loses a friend and then loses grip on his own sanity. I
suspect it’s much more complex than that, though. I love Poschmann’s language:
so precise, and capturing so much in few words, sometimes previously
non-existent ones. There are no clumsy explanations in here – everything’s
subtly shared through the mood and the language. Early reviews are equally enthusiastic.
Sample
sentence: “From the middle of the sun hangs the cable for the chandelier, an
old East German model.”
Non-USPs: Dead
character, writer also a poet, (mental) health issues, family matters,
provinces
Thomas
Stangl: Regeln des Tanzes
Three
characters walking Vienna, several years apart. A retired academic finds two
rolls of film, pictures of two sisters fifteen years previously. The women were
heavily involved in demonstrations against Austria’s neo-fascists and hedonism,
respectively. I enjoyed the extract’s dense prose and characterisation, its
unorthodox style, but I wasn’t sure I’d want to read 280 pages of it. Not many
reviews yet.
Sample
sentence: “For the first time since her father’s death she has the feeling that
something’s really at an end, and this time not only (do you think that, ‘not
only’?) for her and the whole small area of her own life, but for the whole
country and perhaps, regardless of how small and insignificant the country is,
as a consequence for the whole continent and all the countries that call
themselves democracies.”
Non-USPs: Dead
character, social/political issues, place as character, family matters
Jens
Steiner: Carambole
Social
panorama of Swiss village life told from twelve different perspectives. The
extract annoyed me (perhaps a poor choice?). I felt there were too many clumsy
markers telling us about the character, a middle-aged mother with a less than
fulfilling life. It’s hard to tell much about the novel as a whole as it’s only
just come out and hasn’t been reviewed yet. But what I read didn’t seem
promising.
Sample
sentence: “I turned away and picked up an old Brigitte magazine from the
telephone table.”
Non-USPs: Place as
character, family matters, social/political issues, one-word title
Uwe Timm:
Vogelweide
A man has failed
at family and business life and is now looking after birds alone on an island.
Only then his ex-affair comes to visit and he remembers what happened back in
Berlin. With lots of references to older literature (including the title). I
really like Timm’s prose, really. Beautiful sentences that must take either
hours to get right or come out perfectly formed in the first place.
Unfortunately, everyone who’s read the novel is disappointed, critics included.
Sample
sentence: “Here, where he was standing now, had been only water and mud flats
forty years ago.”
Non-USPs: Framing
device, teacher character, love story, place as character
Nellja
Veremej: Berlin liegt im Osten
A woman
moves from the Caucasus to Berlin and works as a carer, weaving her clients’
stories with her own. I heard Veremej read from the autobiographically-shaped
novel earlier this year and found it a tiny bit too flowery for my taste, and
the extract confirmed that for me. But the critics love it: Döblin, Tolstoy,
exile, expectations, disillusionment, they say. So maybe I’m wrong.
Sample
sentence: “The contours and colours melted away until the memory of the little
town consisted only of a few grey snapshots: the long, low house built of rough
stones.”
Non-USPs: Place as
character, social/political issues, (mental) health issues
Urs Widmer:
Reise an den Rand des Universums
Every Swiss
person’s favourite writer has started writing his autobiography, after writing
his father’s and his mother’s stories and pretty much using his own life as
material for ever anyway. So it may be a little tongue-in-cheek, as is his
wont. The extract is about his childhood memories of the war, which he could
literally see across the Swiss border. Charming, witty and skilfully told.
Reviews have been good.
Sample
sentence: “(The war) wasn’t visible in Basel, hardly, or at times it was, as
even for a child – especially for a child – there were signs of it everywhere.”
Non-USPs: Autobiography
Monika
Zeiner: Die Ordnung der Sterne über Como
A musician
meets an ex-lover in Italy and they remember their affair and her partner’s
death. I wasn’t convinced by the extract; there were a lot of style issues I
was unhappy with and nothing yelled “new and interesting” at me. Reviews are
few and far between and similarly unmoved.
Sample
sentence: “Once again, she stood in her underwear in front of the darkness of
her wardrobe, and her eyes alighted on the blue princess dress that Alfredo had
bought her in a boutique on Via Chiaia many years ago, and its torn hem.”
Non-USPs: Dead
character, German-speakers abroad, place as character, framing device, love
story, debut
+++++
The Love German Books Shortlist:
Mirko Bonné
Olaf Kühl
Jonas Lüscher
Clemens Meyer
Terézia Mora
Marion Poschmann
And you won't be biting your nails to find out who'd win if I ruled the world, obviously.
Good to know this The six-title shortlist for the German Book Prize is announced.The German Book Prize 2013 App is available to download as of today! Find out all you need to know about the authors.
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