The Love German Books Incredibly Long Seasonal Gift List

Yes, folks, it is once again time to shower your English-speaking friends and relatives with books translated out of German. You know they love you for it. To help you find the goodies, I have trawled the internet for suitable gifts. Think of me as a German book elf. All the books below were published in 2014. Links are to publishers' websites. I haven't read all of the titles personally, but neither have I included anything I think is likely to be crap. Incredibly, there are over thirty to choose from! You're welcome.

For artistic types or blackmailers: Herta Müller – Cristina and Her Double (trans. Geoffrey Mulligan)

For the whimsical: Jenny Erpenbeck – The End of Days (trans. Susan Bernofsky)

For diary writers: Walter Kempowski – Swansong 1945 (trans. Shaun Whiteside)

For starters-over: Julia Franck – West (trans. Anthea Bell)

For geniuses: Clemens J. Setz – Indigo (trans. Ross Benjamin)

For misshapen acolytes: Alina Bronsky – Just Call Me Superhero (trans. Tim Mohr)

For bird-lovers: Marjana Gaponenko – Who Is Martha? (trans. Arabella Spencer)

For the highly-educated: Joachim Fest – Not I (trans. Martin Chalmers)

For refusers-to-be-categorized: Olga Grjasnowa – All Russians Love Birch Trees (trans. Eva Bacon)

For ambulance-chasers: Wolf Haas – Come, Sweet Death! (trans. Annie Janusch)

For non-scaredy-cats: Zoran Drvenkar – You (trans. Shaun Whiteside)

For historical questioners: Malte Herwig – Post-War Lies. Germany and Hitler's Long Shadow (trans. Jamie Lee Searle and Shaun Whiteside)

For historical re-assessors: Bettina Stangneth – Eichmann Before Jerusalem (trans. Ruth Martin)

For the altruistic: Stefan Klein – Survival of the Nicest (trans. David Dollenmayer)

For adventurous teens and adults: Wolfgang Herrndorf – Why We Took the Car (trans. Tim Mohr)

For Susan fans and foes: Daniel Schreiber – Susan Sontag (trans. David Dollenmayer)

For those who don't mind laughing at Hitler: Timur Vermes – Look Who's Back (trans. Jamie Bulloch)

For dopeheads and beat fans: Jörg Fauser – Raw Material (trans. Jamie Bulloch)

For nasally sensitive e-readers: Andreas Maier – The Room (trans. Jamie Lee Searle)

For Depeche Mode fans: Dennis Burmeister & Sascha Lange – Depeche Mode: Monument (trans. Lucy Renner-Jones)

For the lost-for-words: Mario Giordano – 1000 Feelings for Which There Are No Names (trans. Isabel Fargo Cole)

For hoarders of dark secrets: Alois Hotschnig – Ludwig's Room (trans. Tess Lewis)

For fifties fans: Ingeborg Bachmann – The Radio Family (trans. Mike Mitchell)

For the young at heart: Christa Wolf – August (trans. Katy Derbyshire)

For Sebald fans: Alexander Kluge – Air Raid (trans. Martin Chalmers)

For open-minded satirists: Herbert Rosendorfer – Letters Back to Ancient China (trans. Mike Mitchell)

For city bankers: Jonas Lüscher – Barbarian Spring (trans. Peter Lewis)

For America fans: Alex Capus – Skidoo (trans. John Brownjohn)

For brave kids: Otfried Preussler – Krabat and the Sorcerer's Mill (trans. Anthea Bell)

For Wes Anderson fans: Stefan Zweig – The Society of Crossed Keys (trans. Anthea Bell)

For young twins: Erich Kästner – The Parent Trap (trans. Anthea Bell)

For Finnish crime lovers: Jan Costin Wagner – Light in a Dark House (trans. Anthea Bell)

For boxing (and graphic novel) fans: Reinhard Kleist – The Boxer (trans. Michael Waaler)

The Love German Books Seasonal Gift List for 2013

Long nights drawing in, etc. etc. You need to buy presents for people. You have an evangelical streak and a passion for German books. I am here to help you. Here's my annual list of books translated from German to English this year, for you to give to your friends and relatives. You know they've been looking forward to it all year. See also the lists from 2012 and 2011. I can vouch for all these books because I've either read them at some point or heard very good things about them.

For Scotsmen: Naw Much of a Talker by Pedro Lenz (trans. Donal McLaughlin)

For organized people: Tretjak by Max Landorff (trans. Baida Dar)

For men who like talking about women: On the Edge by Markus Werner (trans. Robert E. Goodwin)

For women who like talking about men: The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke (trans. Jamie Bulloch)

For travel fans: The Village Indian by Abbas Khider (trans. Donal McLaughlin)

For China fans: The King of China by Tilman Rammstedt (trans. Katy Derbyshire)

For Persia fans: Death in Persia by Annemarie Schwarzenbach (trans. Lucy Renner-Jones)

For L.A. fans: City of Angels by Christa Wolf (trans. Damion Searls)

For Greenland fans: Anatomy of a Night by Anna Kim (trans. Bradley Schmidt)

For poetry-prose fans: Mirage by Thomas Lehr (trans. Mike Mitchell)

For spider fans: The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf (trans. Susan Bernofsky)

For chess fans: A Chess Story by Stefan Zweig (trans. Alexander Starritt)

For doggy fans: Puppy Love by Frauke Scheunemann (trans. Shelley Frisch)

For Walser fans: Her Not All Her by Elfriede Jelinek (trans. Damion Searls)

For Franzen fans: The Kraus Project by Jonathan Franzen (trans. Jonathan Franzen)

For graphic novel fans: Love Looks Away by Line Hoven (don't know who translated it)

For translation fans: Portrait of a Tongue by Yoko Tawada (trans. Chantal Wright)

For happy mothers: In Times of Fading Light by Eugen Ruge (trans. Anthea Bell)

For unhappy mothers: Wrecked by Charlotte Roche (trans. Tim Mohr)

For siblings: Back to Back by Julia Franck (trans. Anthea Bell)

For utopianists: Plan D by Simon Urban (trans. Katy Derbyshire)

For cynics: Apostoloff by Sibylle Lewitscharoff (trans. Katy Derbyshire)

The Love German Books Seasonal Gift List 2012

You can gauge the progress of my Christmas shopping by the date I post this list every year. I may be cutting it a bit fine this time around. But here is a list of books translated from German to English that came out this year, all of which I can genuinely and honestly recommend. Those I haven't read personally, I still recommend because I know people who've loved them. Most of it is contemporary fiction, predictably enough perhaps. So now you too can bombard friends and relatives with Teutonic yuletide treats.

For the very literary: -->

Herta Müller: The Hunger Angel, trans. Philip Boehm

For the slightly silly:

Walter Moers: The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books, trans. John Brownjohn

For the rythmically inclined:

Thomas Lehr: September, trans. Mike Mitchell

For romantic souls:

Katharina Hagena: The Taste of Apple Seeds, trans. Jamie Bulloch

For Hanuka: 

Benjamin Stein: The Canvas, trans. Brian Zumhagen

For odd crime fans:

Wolf Haas: Brenner and God, trans. Annie Janusch

For walkers:

Christoph Simon: Zbinden’s Progress, trans. Donal McLaughlin

For reluctant travellers:

Sibylle Lewitscharoff: Apostoloff, trans. Katy Derbyshire

For Marxist genre-busters:

Dietmar Dath: The Abolition of Species, trans. Samuel Willcocks

For the unhappy:

Hansjörg Schertenleib: A Happy Man, trans. David Dollenmeyer

For the philosophical:

Peter Sloterdijk: The Art of Philosophy, trans. Karen Margolis

For Berlin fans (older):

Robert Walser: Berlin Stories, trans. Susan Bernofsky

For Berlin fans (younger):

Helene Hegemann: Axolotl Roadkill, trans. Katy Derbyshire

For poetry people:

Anja Utler: engulf - enkindle, trans. Kurt Beals

And if nothing takes your fancy, you can always look back at the lists from 2010 and 2011. No shopping list is complete, I'm sure you'll agree, without at least one German book on it.

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Ten shopping days to Christmas and you can't be bothered to leave the comfort of your home ever again? Lower back pain from lugging heavy shopping bags? Panic rising as you remember you've forgotten to get your dad anything? I know that feeling. Instead of stuffing cash in an envelope, why not go for classy gifts that don't require you getting rained on?

A book subscription! Translated fiction sent to your loved ones' door at regular intervals - reminding them all through the year of what a wonderful person you are and what sophisticated taste you have. At least three fantastic options are open to you:

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A Peirene Press subscription offers six books a year for 45 pounds or three for 24. This one includes another Swiss title, Richard Weihe's illustrated novella Sea of Ink, trans. Jamie Bulloch, which I don't know at all yet.

Or if you're stuck in the States go for an Open Letter Books subscription, which is terribly confusing but I think buys you twelve books for 100 dollars or six for 60. I believe that would include Benjamin Stein's excellent The Canvas, trans. Brian Zumhagen.

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