German Book Prize 2022 - The Shortlist
The shortlist for this year's German Book Prize has been announced and we're happy to see five B&G titles among the finalists! The winner will be announced on October 17 prior to the Buchmesse.
Fatma Aydemir: Dschinns (Djinss) - Carl Hanser
After working in Germany for 30 years, Hüseyin finally realises his dream of owning a flat in Istanbul – only to die of a heart attack on the day he moves in. His family from Germany follows in his wake to attend the funeral. Fatma Aydemir tells the story of six fundamentally different people who happen to be related to each other – and of the insatiable longing to be understood.
Daniela Dröscher: Lügen über meine Mutter (Lies About My Mother) - Kiepenheuer & Witsch
A childhood in the 1980s dominated by one topic: the narrator’s mother’s body weight. Is this beautiful, headstrong, unpredictable woman too fat? Does she urgently need to lose weight? Yes, her husband decides, she does. He is obsessed that his wife’s excess weight is to blame for everything he can’t get: a promotion, social advancement, recognition in the small-town community. Though subjected to this day after day, the mother never stops fighting to be the master of her own life.
Jan Faktor: Trottel (Simpleton) - Kiepenheuer & Witsch
The life of a self-proclaimed bungler, as told by himself. His stint as a student of computer science in Prague is short-lived. After a memorable encounter with the "Teutonic horde", which includes his future wife, he moves to East Berlin, immerses himself in the weird, political underground scene in Prenzlauer Berg, starts a family and experiences the East German doctrine and post-reunification years. But all these memories are shot through with darkness: the trace of the son who will choose suicide at the age of 33 and whose death will make everything come unhinged.
Kim de l’Horizon: Blutbuch (Bloodbook) - DuMont
The narrator of "Blutbuch" does not identify as either male or female. Raised in a shabby Swiss suburb, they have escaped the narrow structures of their origins and now live contentedly in their non-binary body and own sexuality in Zurich. But then their grandmother develops dementia and the "I" begins to grapple with the past. An act of liberation from the things we carry forward unasked: gender, trauma and class.
Eckhart Nickel: Spitzweg (Spitzweg) - Piper
“I never cared much for art.” Revealing himself as a contented philistine at the outset, the narrator reports on how Carl, an admired friend, convinces him otherwise thanks to his enthusiasm for the artist Spitzweg. When his passion goes so far that he doesn’t even balk at committing a crime, their friendship, which dates back to their school days, is put to its most difficult test. A dramatic search begins.
