German Book Prize 2023 - The shortlist
The shortlist for this year's German Book Prize has just been announced and we're excited that all six novels are represented by B&G in Italy! The award ceremony will kick off the Frankfurter Buchmesse on October 16.
Italian rights are available for all titles and we're happy to present them here.
Terézia Mora: Muna, oder Die Hälfte des Lebens (Muna, or Half a Life) - Luchterhand
Muna is about to graduate from high school when she meets Magnus, a French teacher and photographer. She spends the night with him. When the Berlin Wall comes down, he disappears. Seven years later, they meet again – and become a couple. Muna thinks she has found the love of her life. But as soon as they take their first trip together, cracks start showing in their relationship. Over the years the coldness, unpredictability and violence get worse. But Muna isn’t willing to give up.
“From the very first sentence, Mora’s straightforward, laconic prose generates a pull that is impossible to resist. Muna oder die Hälfte des Lebens is a novel that stays with you”.
Necati Öziri: Vatermal (Father's Mark) - Claassen
Arda does not know how much time he has left. He is lying in a hospital in his hometown with organ failure. His mother Ümran and his sister Aylin take turns sitting at his bedside, careful never to meet. The two have not spoken a word to each other for ten years.
In a long farewell letter, Arda turns to his father, whom he has never met. He came to Germany escaping a politically motivated trial. Years later, he snuck out of his pregnant wife’s bed to return to Turkey and be arrested at the airport. Arda tells the stranger about growing up in Germany without citizenship, without a passport and without a father, of birthdays at the foreign nationals’ office, and about the last summer before all his friends disappear...
“In Vatermal, Necati Öziri captures the sound of the street: angry, quick-witted, funny and tender. His youthful heroes try to find their way in a society in which they never really arrive. Öziri opens our eyes to this German reality.”
Anne Rabe: Die Möglichkeit von Glück (The Possibility of Happiness) - Klett-Cotta
Stine is born in the mid-1980s in a small town on the East German Baltic coast, a child of reunification. She is too young to understand the change of system in the GDR, but her family's complex ideological views have an
impact on the next generation. As her relatives hide the lost world behind an impenetrable silence, Stine finds herself asking questions she can no longer repress. Anne Rabe has written a clear-sighted and unsettling book with great literary power - a mixture of non-fiction and literature, knowledgeably researched and at the same time captivatingly beautiful. She traces the wounds of a generation that grew up between dictatorship and democracy, and explores the origins of racism and violence.
“Based on extensive archival research, Anne Rabe demonstrates how strongly the cultural climate of East Germany was influenced by unresolved war experiences. Through this sharp analysis and a very emotionally charged family story, she succeeds in making a galvanizing contribution to current debates about the roots of violence and misanthropy.”
Tonio Schachinger: Echtzeitalter (Realtimes) - Rowohlt
An elite boarding school in Vienna, housed within what used to be the Hapsburgs’ summer residence. The form tutor is an old-fashioned and despotic man. What could anyone hope to learn here that they could actually use in real life? Till Kokorda has no time for the canon or for this snobbish environment. His passion is gaming – specifically the real-time strategy game “Age of Empires 2”. After his father dies, Till’s hobby becomes a financial imperative. Although nobody at the school knows it, Till is an online celebrity at the age of 15 – the youngest Top-10 player in the world. But how real is this kind of happiness? In 2020, his final year at the school, nothing goes the way Till had expected it to, either at school or in life.
“An analysis of Austrian society that rivals Thomas Bernhard in terms of clarity and incisiveness, even as it remains rather quiet and gentle in tone. Last but not least: a literary reflection on the world of real-time computer games that is unparalleled in its subtlety, lucidity and lack of clichés.”
Sylvie Schenk: Maman (Maman) - Hanser
Sylvie Schenk’s mother was born in Lyon in 1916, and her grandmother died during her mother’s birth. Allegedly she was a silk worker, like her great-grandmother. But was this true? And what family history will be passed on to the next generation? As a child, Sylvie Schenk suffered from this lack of clarity, which still affects her today – a writer tormented by restlessness. With lyrical precision, she retraces the questions that her family history has left open.
“Artfully interweaving facts and fictions, Sylvie Schenk condenses the life story of her mother and her own being into a literary biography that counters her mother’s voicelessness with a narrative in which poverty, shame, trauma and doubt also find expression. The result is a quiet yet forceful text that attempts to explore – without sentimentality but with great empathy and historical curiosity – what we call origins.”
Ulrike Sterblich: Drifter (Drifter) - Rowohlt
Wenzel and Killer have been friends for ages and are well-established in their lives. Killer works as a PR chief for a large company, while Wenzel manages social media channels for a TV network. However, everything changes when Vica enters their lives: a woman in a golden dress, often accompanied by two loyal aides and a huge shaggy dog. With each encounter, new questions arise: How does she know so much about Wenzel and Killer? Why does she possess a copy of the new book by Drifter, an enigmatic fictional character, even before its release? And where did her dog learn to dance? As Vica takes over the apartment building of their childhood, the world of these two friends begins to shake.
“Drifter by Ulrike Sterblich is one rousing ride: a vicious satire on the literary scene, social media and hero worship. At the same time, the book tells of the deep friendship between the protagonists Wenzel and Killer. The Mephistophelian figure of Vica is unique: unforgettable, enigmatic and seductive. Laying false trails, Sterblich leads us on a truly merry chase. A masterful story about the great void.”
