50 Books That Travel 2020 - Frankfurter Buchmesse
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50 Books That Travel 2020 Current German Novels, Children’s & YA and Non-Fiction Books in English Translation This selection of German titles is show-cased at book fairs all over the world on the German collective stands organized by the Frankfurter Buchmesse in 2020.
Children’s & YA
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
A Castle in the Clouds Do Fish Sleep? My Little Ocean
Wolkenschloss Schlafen Fische? Mein kleines Meer
Dramatiker erzählen für
Kinder
KERSTIN GIER JENS RASCHKE KATHRIN WIEHLE
Translated by Romy Fursland Translated by Belinda Cooper Translated by Navid Kerman
Fischer FJB, 978-3841440211 mixtvision Verlag, 978-3958540705 Beltz, 978-3407795977
Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 978-1250300195 Enchanted Lion Books, 978-1592702855 Houghton Mifflin, 978-1328535252
336 pages, HC 64 pages, HC 16 pages, Boardbook
High up in the Swiss mountains Jette’s brother Emil, who had been The friendly sea creatures Seal,
there‘s an old luxurious hotel, steeped sick since before she could remem- Seagull and Crab introduce read-
in tradition and faded grandeur. ber, has now died. The feelings that ers to their homes in the ocean and
Once a year, when the famous losing him evoke in her are huge on the beach. They show us what
New Year‘s Eve Ball takes place and confusing. Most simply, it feels plants grow on the ocean floor,
and guests arrive from all around as though a dark raincloud has what crabs look like, and which are
the world, excitement returns to its descended over her family. the fish with the funny red dots.
vast hallways. Seventeen-year-old And then there‘s the ridiculous Elegantly designed with simple
Sophie is kept busy along with the fact that nobody seems to know texts, Kathrin Wiehle‘s gentle, ador-
rest of the staff, making sure every- what happens after you die, and able illustrations complement the
thing goes according to plan. But yet adults often talk as if they do. sustainable format. Printed on
unexpected problems keep arising, Told in the first-person voice of an thick, 100 per cent recycled board,
and some of the guests are not observant ten-year-old girl, Do this eco-friendly series of books
who they pretend to be. Very soon, Fish Sleep? by Jens Raschke is an encourages young readers to enjoy
Sophie finds herself in the middle honest, darkly funny look at loss, nature – inside and out!
of a perilous adventure, at risk of memory and the search for an-
losing not only her job, but also her swers. Originally performed as a
heart. one-girl play, Do Fish Sleep? was
a huge success at the box office,
and received both the 2012 Mülheimer
Children’s Theatre Prize and the
2014 MDR Children’s Radio Play
Prize. Do Fish Sleep? has been a
bestseller in Germany since its pub-
lication and has been translated
into several languages.
2Children‘s & YA
____________________________
Can You Hear the Trees
Talking?
Hörst du, wie die Bäume
sprechen?
Eine kleine Entdeckungs-
reise durch den Wald
PETER WOHLLEBEN
Translated by Shelley Tanaka
Oetinger, 978-3789108228
Greystone Kids, 978-1771644341
84 pages, HC
Did you know that trees have par-
ents and grandparents with wrink-
les? That tree-kids spend hundreds
of years at school? That there’s
such a thing as the forest internet?
And that trees make us healthy and
strong? Sometimes, even trees get
sick, but we can help them heal.
Peter Wohlleben established himself
as a global advocate for forests
and our relationship with trees, with
his ground-breaking international
bestseller, The Hidden Life of Trees.
Now, he shares his famous imagi-
nation and storytelling style with
children, asking surprising questions
about trees, with exciting quizzes,
photographs and hands-on activi-
ties to help even the most reluctant
learners find the answers.
3Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Malina The Second Rider The Dance of Death
Malina Der zweite Reiter Im Auftrag der Väter
INGEBORG BACHMANN ALEX BEER OLIVER BOTTINI
Translated by Philip Boehm Translated by Tim Mohr Translated by Jamie Bulloch
Suhrkamp Verlag, 978-3518371411 Limes Verlag, 978-3734105999 Fischer Scherz Verlag, 978-3832163136
New Directions, 978-0811228725 Europa Editions, 978-1609454722 MacLehose Press, 978-0857057686
283 pages, SC 320 pages, SC 400 pages, HC
In Malina, originally published in Ger- In Vienna just after the First World On a wet and misty weekend in Oc-
man in 1971, Ingeborg Bachmann in- War, the grandeur of the Habsburg tober, the Niemann family find a
vites the reader into a world stretched Empire is a fading memory. Most of stranger in their garden. He is armed
to the very limits of language. An the people are hungry. They survive and tries to force his way into the
unnamed narrator, a writer in Vienna, by their wits, living hand-to-mouth house, but disappears as soon as
is torn between two men. Viewed in a city rife with crime, prostitution the police are alerted. That night
through the tilting prism of obses- and disfigured beggars. There are he returns with an impossible ulti-
sion, she travels ever further into her shakedowns on every street corner, matum... Freiburg detective Louise
own madness, anxiety and genius. the black market is the only market Boni and her colleagues are under
Malina explores love, ”death styles“, and the shortage of essential goods enormous pressure to investigate
the roots of fascism, and passion. creates countless opportunities for the case. The trail leads her to a
unscrupulous operators. Into this dangerous no-man‘s land, and to
cauldron of vice comes Inspector a ruthless criminal who brings with
August Emmerich, a veteran himself, him the trauma of conflict in the
whose ambition leads him to break Balkans.
the rules whenever necessary. His
abiding wish is to join the Vienna’s
major crimes unit. Then a corpse is
found in the woods outside the city
and immediately labelled a suicide.
But Emmerich is convinced it was
nothing of the sort and sees a
chance to prove his mettle. His in-
vestigations point to an insidious,
homicidal power hidden in the city.
4Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Beton Rouge Tyll. The Prepper Room
A Novel
Beton Rouge Tyll Macht
SIMONE BUCHHOLZ DANIEL KEHLMANN KAREN DUVE
Translated by Rachel Ward Translated by Ross Benjamin Translated by Anthea Bell
Suhrkamp Verlag, 978-3518467855 Rowohlt Verlag, 978-3498035679 Galiani Verlag, 978-3442472666
Orenda Books, 978-1912374595 Pantheon, 978-1524747466, Dedalus Books, 978-1910213728
276 pages, SC 352 pages, HC 331 pages, SC
On a warm September morning a Daniel Kehlmann masterfully weaves The year is 2031. There are extreme
man is found unconscious in a cage the fates of many historical figures weather events: storms, floods and
at the entrance to the offices of one into this enchanting work of magical intense heat. A rejuvenation pill has
of Germany’s biggest magazines. realism and adventure. His retelling of been developed, but no one is going
He is soon identified as a manager the seventeenth-century vagabond to enjoy eternal youth for long: The
of the company, and he has been performer and trickster, Tyll Ulenspiegel, experts forecast that the world‘s eco-
tortured. Three days later, another begins when he’s a scrawny boy systems will collapse in five years‘ time.
manager appears in a similar way. growing up in a quiet village. When Women are now in power and trying
Chastity Riley and her new col- his father, a miller with a secret in- and save the world from the mess the
league, Ivo Stepanovic, are tasked terest in alchemy and magic, is found men have left it in. But there is op-
with uncovering the truth behind out by the church, Tyll is forced to flee position in the form of the MASCULO
the attacks, an investigation that with the baker’s daughter, Nele. movement, which aims to reassert
goes far beyond the revenge they They find safety and companionship male dominance – by violent means
first suspect to the dubious past with a travelling performer, who if necessary. Sebastian seems to be
shared by both victims. Travelling teaches Tyll his trade. So begins a one of the good guys. A Greenpeace
to the South of Germany, they step journey of discovery and perfor- activist in his youth, he now has an
into a hothouse world of boarding mance for Tyll, as he travels a con- important position in the Democracy
schools, where secrets are currency, tinent devastated by the Thirty Centre. But in his private life he is
and monsters are bred … monsters Years’ War, encountering a hang- attempting to restore his male pride:
who will stop at nothing to protect man, a fraudulent Jesuit scholar For the last two years he has kept
themselves. and the exiled King Frederick and his wife locked up in the cellar. But
Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia, along his attempts to do away with her
the way. Tyll displays Kehlmann’s re- so he can live with his new love
markable narrative gifts and con- lead to disaster.
firms the power of art in the face of
the senseless brutality of history.
5Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Shit Is Real An Instinctive Feeling of City of Jasmine
Innocence
Shit is Real Das primäre Gefühl der Gott ist nicht schüchtern
Schuldlosigkeit
AISHA FRANZ DANA GRIGORCEA OLGA GRJASNOWA
Translated by Nicholas Houde Translated by Alta L. Price Translated by Katy Derbyshire
Reprodukt Verlag, 978-3956400636 Ullstein Verlag, 978-3548289038 Aufbau Verlag, 978-3351036652
Drawn & Quarterly, 978-1770463158 Seagull Books, 978-0857426512 Oneworld Publications, 978-1786074874
288 pages, HC 228 pages, HC 256 pages, HC
After an unexpected breakup, a Victoria has just moved back from Amal, Hammoudi and Youssef are
young woman named Selma wants Zurich to her hometown, Bucharest, young and ambitious – the face
to start afresh, but she experienc- when the bank where she works is of modern Syria. But when civil war
es a series of emotional setbacks. robbed. Put on leave so that she tears through their homeland they
Struggling to relate to her friends can process the trauma of the rob- are left with a terrible choice: risk
and accomplish even the simplest bery, Victoria strolls around town. death by staying in the country
tasks like using a modern laun- Each street triggers sudden visions they love, or flee in search of a new
dromat, she sinks deeper into as memories from her childhood life elsewhere? From one of Germany‘s
depression. She moves into her under the Ceaușescu regime begin most talented literary voices comes
neighbour’s apartment but her to mix with the radically changed this intricately woven story of bru-
growing despair distances her city and the strange world in which tality and loss, and of how hope
from her eager and sympathetic she now finds herself. As the walls can shine through when the dark-
friend. Aisha Franz is a master of of reality begin to crumble, Victoria ness feels overwhelming.
portraying feminine loneliness and and her former self cross paths with
confusion while keeping her cha- the bank robber and a rich cast of
racters tough and real. Her artwork characters, weaving a vivid portrait
shifts from sparseness to detailed of Romania and one woman’s self-
futurist with ease. Her characters discovery. In her stunning second
fidget and twirl as they zip through novel, Swiss-Romanian writer Dana
a world both foreign and familiar. Grigorcea paints a series of extra-
Base human desires and functions ordinarily colourful pictures. With
alternate with dreamlike symbolism humour and wit, she describes a
to create a tension-filled tale of world of myriad surprises in which
the nightmare that is modern life. new and old cultures are woven
together – a world bursting with
character and spirit.
6Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
The Eighth Life Sand Ghosts of Berlin
Das achte Leben Sand Truggestalten
NINO HARATISCHWILI WOLFGANG HERRNDORF RUDOLPH HERZOG
Translated by Charlotte Collins and Translated by Tim Mohr Translated by Emma Raul
Ruth Martin Rowohlt Verlag, 978-3499258640 Galiani Verlag, 978-3869711485
Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, New York Review Books Classics (US), Melville House, 978-1612197517
978-3548289274 978-1681372013 192 pages, SC
Scribe, 978-1950354146 464 pages, SC
944 pages, SC
An epic family saga beginning with North Africa, 1972. While the world is In these hair-raising stories by ce-
the Russian Revolution and swirling reeling from the massacre of Israeli lebrated filmmaker and author,
across a century, encompassing war, athletes at the Munich Olympics, a Rudolph Herzog, millennial Berliners
loss, loves requited and unrequited, series of mysterious events is playing discover that their city is still home
ghosts, joy, mas-sacres and tragedy. out in the Sahara. Four people are to many unsettled – and deeply
And hot chocolate. murdered in a hippie commune, a unsettling – ghosts. And the ghosts
At the start of the twentieth century, suitcase full of money disappears are not very happy about the new-
on the edge of the Russian empire, and a pair of unenthusiastic detec- comers. The molly-coddled daughter
a family prospers. It owes its success tives are assigned to investigate. of a rich tech executive finds herself
to a delicious chocolate recipe that In the midst of it all, a man with no slowly tormented by the spirit of a
is passed down the generations memory tries to evade his armed Weimar-era labourer, and a German
with great solemnity and caution. pursuers. Who are they? What do intelligence officer confronts a troll
The caution is justified: This is a they want from him? If he could just that’s wreaking havoc at the city‘s
recipe for ecstasy that carries a very recall his own identity he might have unfinished new airport. An undead
bitter aftertaste… Having learned a chance of working it out... Nazi sympathizer romances a Greek
the recipe from her Georgian fa- This darkly sophisticated literary emigre, while Turkish migrants curse
ther, Stasia takes it north when thriller – the last novel Wolfgang the gentrifiers that have evicted
she follows her new husband to his Herrndorf completed before his them. Herzog‘s keen observational
posting in St Petersburg – which untimely death in 2013 – is, in the eye and acid wit turn modern city
becomes the centre of the Russian words of Michael Maar, “the greatest, stories into deliciously dark satires
Revolution. Stasia’s is only the first grisliest, funniest and wisest novel that ride the knife-edge of suspense
in a symphony of grand but all too of the past decade”. Certainly no and terror.
often doomed romances that swirl reader will ever forget it.
from sweet to sour in this epic tale
of the red century. Cascading down
the years and across Europe, the
tale follows generation after gener-
ation of this compelling family.
7Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
German House The Storyteller Anniversaries.
From the Life of
Gesine Cresspahl
Deutsches Haus Am Ende bleiben die Zedern Jahrestage.
Aus dem Leben von
Gesine Cresspahl
ANNETTE HESS PIERRE JARAWAN UWE JOHNSON
Translated by Elisabeth Lauffer Translated by Sinéad Crowe and Translated by Damion Searls
Ullstein Verlag, 978-3550050244 Rachel McNicholl Suhrkamp Verlag, 978-3518464557
HarperVia, 978-978-0062910257 Piper Verlag, 978-3492311991 New York Review Books Classics (US),
336 pages, SC World Editions, 978-1642860115 978-1681372037
468 pages, SC 1720 pages, SC
Set against the Frankfurt Ausch- Samir leaves the comfort of his Uwe Johnson started writing this
witz Trials of 1963, Annette Hess’s family’s adopted home, Germany, book in 1967. It contains one chapter
international bestseller is a har- for volatile Beirut in an attempt for each day from August 1967 to
rowing yet ultimately uplifting to find his missing father. The only August 1968, and recounts the tale
coming-of-age novel. It tells the clues Samir has are an old photo of Gesine Cresspahl, a single mother
story of Eva, a young woman and the bedtime stories his father and a German émigré in Manhattan’s
caught between the conflicting used to tell him. With this moving Upper West Side, and of her ten-
expectations of society and her novel about family secrets, love year-old daughter, Marie. It is a
family. Opposing her parents and and friendship, Pierre Jarawan story of work and school, of friends
her fiancé alike, she works as a does for Lebanon what Khaled and lovers and the countless small
translator at the trials, where Hosseini did for Afghanistan with encounters with neighbours and
she has a unique opportunity to The Kite Runner. He pulls away the strangers that make up big-city life.
speak truth to power, as she fights curtain of grim facts and figures It is an everyday story, but one that
to expose the dark truths of her as presented by the media and juxtaposes tales of the mother’s
nation’s past. shows us intimately what it means childhood in Nazi Germany with
to come from a country torn apart tales of 60s America. Gesine and
by civil war. With this beautiful Marie are among the most mem-
and exciting story rich in imagery, orable and engaging characters in
Jarawan proves himself to be a literature. At once monumental and
masterful storyteller. intimate, sweeping and full of inci-
dent, stylistically adventurous and
endlessly absorbing, Anniversaries is
quite simply one of the great books
of our time.
8Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Homeland A Slap in the Face The Great Homecoming
Mark und Bein Ohrfeige Die große Heimkehr
WALTER KEMPOWSKI ABBAS KHIDER ANNA KIM
Translated by Charlotte Collins Translated by Simon Pare Translated by Jamie Lee Searle
Albrecht Knaus Verlag, 978-3813519792 btb Verlag, 978-3442714902 Suhrkamp Verlag, 978-3518425459
Granta Books, 978-1783783533 Seagull Books, 978-0857425355 Portobello Books, 978-1846276552
190 pages, SC 192 pages, HC 384 pages, SC
It is 1988, the year before the Berlin A Slap in the Face could not be 1959, Seoul. Divided from his family
Wall came down. Jonathan Fabri- more timely in this age of mass by the violent tumult of the Korean
zius, a journalist living in West Ger- migration, much of it driven by war civil war, Yunho arrives in South
many, is asked to travel to the con- and the aftermath of war. It tells Korea‘s capital searching for his
tested lands of former East Prussia, the story of Karim, an Iraqi refugee oldest friend. He finds him in the
where the Nazi legacy lives on in living in Germany whose right to arms of a mysterious dancer, Eve
buildings and fortifications, to write asylum has been revoked in the Moon; a woman of many names
about the route of a car rally. wake of Saddam Hussein’s defeat. who may be a refugee fleeing the
It‘s a plum job, but his interest is But Hussein wasn’t the only reason communist North, or an American
piqued by a personal connection. Karim left. As Abbas Khider relates spy. Beguiled by her beauty, Yunho
It was here that he was born, among the story, we learn not only about falls desperately in love. But nothing
the refugees fleeing the advancing the secret struggles Karim faced in in Seoul is what it seems. The city is
Russians in 1945. Homeland is a nu- his homeland, but also the battles crowded with double agents and
anced work from one of the great he has to go through with prejudice, soldiers, and wracked by protests
modern European storytellers. It tells distrust, poverty and bureaucracy and poverty. Meanwhile, across the
of a typical German who comes as he attempts to make a new life border in North Korea, Pyongyang
face to face with his painful family in Germany. When he erupts in grows more prosperous by the day.
history, and it addresses some de- frustration at his caseworker and When a series of betrayals and a
vastating questions about the com- finally forces her to listen to his brutal crime drive the friends into
plicity of ordinary Germans in the war. story, we get an account of a exile, Yunho finds himself caught in
contemporary life upended by the riptide of history.
politics and violence. It is told with
a warmth and humour that, while
surprising, does nothing to lessen
the outrages Karim describes.
9Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
River QualityLand The Fatherland Files.
A Gereon Rath Mystery
Am Fluss QualityLand Die Akte Vaterland.
Gereon Raths vierter Fall
ESTHER KINSKY MARC-UWE KLING VOLKER KUTSCHER
Translated by Iain Galbraith Translated by Amie Searle Romanelli Translated by Niall Sellar
Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 978-3957570567 Ullstein Verlag, 978-3550050237 Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 978-3462046465
Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK), Grand Central Publishing, Sandstone Press, 978-1912240562
Transit Books (US), 978-1945492174 HC: 978-1538732960 544 pages, SC
357 pages, SC SC: 978-1538732984
352 pages, HC, SC
A woman moves to a London suburb Welcome to QualityLand, in the It is July 1932 and a drowned man is
near the River Lea, without knowing not-too-distant future, where found in a freight elevator in the le-
quite why or for how long. Over a everything works on automatic, gendary palace of entertainment
series of long, solitary walks she re- from careers to relationships, and on Potsdamer Platz, far from any
minisces about the rivers she has the fool proof algorithms of the standing water. Inspector Gereon
encountered during her life, from biggest company in the world, Rath‘s hunt for a mysterious con-
the Rhine, the river of her childhood, TheShop, know what you want tract killer has stalled, but this new
to the Saint Lawrence River and a before you do and conveniently case will take him to a small town on
stream in Tel Aviv. Filled with poig- deliver it to your doorstep before the Polish border and confrontation
nancy and poetic observation, River you even order it. Peter Jobless is with the rising Nazi party.
is an ode to nature, edgelands, a machine scrapper in QualityCity
and the transience of all things who can‘t quite bring himself to
human. destroy the imperfect machines
sent his way, and has become the
unwitting leader of a band of robo-
tic misfits hidden in his home and
workplace. One day, Peter receives
a product from TheShop that he
absolutely, positively knows he
does not want, and which he de-
cides, at great personal cost, to
return. The only problem: Doing so
means proving that TheShop’s
perfect algorithm is wrong, calling
into question the very foundations
of QualityLand itself.
10Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
All the Land Maybe Esther The Pine Islands
Alles Land Vielleicht Esther Die Kieferninsel
JO LENDLE KATJA PETROWSKAJA MARION POSCHMANN
Translated by Katy Derbyshire Translated by Shelley Frisch Translated by Jen Calleja
Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Suhrkamp Verlag, 978-3518465967 Suhrkamp Verlag, 978-3518427606
978-3442745944 4th Estate (UK), HarperCollins (US), HC: Serpent’s Tail, 978-1788160919
Seagull Books, 978-0857426062 978-0062337566 SC: Coach House Books, 978-1552454015
264 pages, HC 272 pages, SC HC: 192 pages, SC: 160 pages
How did Alfred Wegener, son of a Katja Petrowskaja wanted to create When Gilbert Silvester, university
minister from Berlin, find himself in a kind of family tree, charting rela- lecturer, wakes one day from a
the most isolated spot on earth in tives who had scattered across dream that his wife has cheated on
1930, attempting to survive an un- many countries and continents. him, he flees – immediately, irrationally,
thinkably cold winter in the middle The result was this striking and inexplicably – to Japan. In Tokyo he
of Greenland? In All the Land, Jo highly original work of narrative discovers the travel writings of the
Lendle chronicles Wegener’s extra- nonfiction, an account of her great Japanese poet Basho.
ordinary journey, from his childhood search for meaning in the stories Suddenly, Gilbert finds a purpose in
in Germany to this, the most unfor- of her ancestors. In a series of short his directionless crisis: a pilgrimage
giving corner of the planet Wegener’s meditations, Petrowskaja delves following in the footsteps of the poet
life was anything but ordinary. He into family legends and introduces to see the moon rise over the pine
grew up surrounded by children at a remarkable cast of characters: islands of Matsushima. On the way
the orphanage his parents ran, and Judas Stern, her great-uncle, who he falls in with another pilgrim, Yosa,
he felt driven by his scientific spirit, shot a German diplomatic attaché a young Japanese student, clutch-
not only to find answers to big quest- in 1932 and was sentenced to death; ing a copy of The Complete Manual
ions, but also to seek solitude. her grandfather Semyon, who went of Suicide. Together, Gilbert and
Though Wegener’s life ended in to ground with a new name during Yosa travel across Basho‘s disap-
tragedy during his long winter in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, pearing Japan, one in search of his
Greenland, he left us with a scien- splitting off that branch of the perfect ending and the other a new
tific legacy: His theory of continen- family for good; her grandmother beginning. Serene, playful and pro-
tal drift was mocked by his peers Rosa, who ran an orphanage in the found, The Pine Islands is a story of
and only recognized decades after Urals for Jewish deaf-mute children; the transformations we seek and
his death. In a tale that is both her Ukrainian grandfather Vasily, the ones we find along the way.
thrilling and tender, Lendle tells us who disappeared during World
the story of this great adventurer War II and reappeared without
and the experiences that shaped explanation forty-one years later;
him. and her great-grandmother, whose
name may have been Esther, who
alone remained in Kiev and was
killed by the Nazis.
11Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Beside Myself The Hour Between Dog One Clear, Ice-Cold
and Wolf January Morning at the
Beginning of the
Twenty-First Century
Ausser sich Die Stunde zwischen Hund An einem klaren, eiskalten
und Wolf Januarmorgen zu Beginn
des 21. Jahrhunderts
SASCHA MARIANNA SALZMANN SILKE SCHEUERMANN ROLAND SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Translated by Imogen Taylor Translated by Lucy Jonesl Translated by Jamie Bulloch
Suhrkamp Verlag, 978-3518427620 Schöffling & Co., 978-3596192199 S. Fischer Verlag, 978-3596034765
Other Press, 978-1892746443 Seagull Books, 978-0857424730 MacLehose Press, 978-0857057013
336 pages, SC 184 pages, HC 240 pages, SC
A brilliant literary debut about belong- A young woman returns to her On an icy motorway eighty kilome-
ing, family and love, and about the hometown, Frankfurt am Main, tres outside Berlin, a fuel tanker jack-
enigmatic nature of identity. Beside after living abroad for some time. knifes and explodes. A lone wolf is
Myself is the disturbing and exhila- Her sister Ines, a painter, beautiful glimpsed on the hard shoulder and
rating story of a family, spanning four and impetuous, who still lives in photographed by Tomasz, a Polish
generations. At its heart it‘s a woman’s Frankfurt, soon appears and asks construction worker who is miserable
search for her twin brother. When her for financial help. The returning in Germany without his girlfriend.
Anton goes missing and the only clue sister knew this was coming. It’s how Elisabeth and Micha run away
is a postcard sent from Istanbul, Ali their relationship always used to through the snow from their home
leaves her life in Berlin to find him. work, but this time she’s determined village, crossing the wolf‘s tracks on
Without her twin, the sharer of her to change things. However, many their way to the city. A woman burns
memories and the mirror of her own plans often succumb to the surprises her mother‘s diaries on a Berlin bal-
self, she feels lost. In a city steeped in of life. Just as the sister is about to cony. Elisabeth‘s father, a famous
political and social upheaval, where drift into an affair with Ines’s lover, sculptor, examines the vast skeleton
you can buy gender-changing drugs the two women unexpectedly grow of a whale in his studio and asks
on the street, Ali’s search for her mis- closer. The Hour Between Dog and what he is doing here, and why?
sing brother – for her own identity – Wolf is a tale of disorientation in a Experiences and encounters flicker
will take her on a journey to connec- modern, fundamentally rootless past with a raw, visual power, like
tion and belonging. society that has become increas- frames in a black and white film.
ingly erratic and self-absorbed. Those who catch sight of the wolf
It is a powerful exploration of the see their own lives reflected, and
difficulties of intimacy and addiction. find themselves searching for a
different path at a cold time.
This first novel by Germany‘s most
celebrated contemporary playwright
is written in prose of tremendous
power and precision.
12Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
The Sex of the Angels, the Kruso Sweet Indifference of the
Saints in Their Heaven World
Das Geschlecht der Engel, Kruso Die sanfte Gleichgültigkeit
der Himmel der Heiligen. der Welt
Ein Brevier
RAOUL SCHROTT LUTZ SEILER PETER STAMM
Translated by Karen Leeder Translated by Tess Lewis Translated by Lisa Liesener and
S. Fischer Verlag, 978-3596168231 Suhrkamp Verlag, 978-3518466308 Kevin Wiliarty
Seagull Books, 978-0857425553 Scribe US, Other Press Verlag, 978-1590519790
152 pages, HC HC: 978-1911344001 S. Fischer Verlag, 978-3103972597
SC: 978-1947534117 144 Pages, SC
HC: 462 pages, SC: 480 pages
The Sex of the Angels is a playful, It is 1989 and a young literature stu- In this alluring, melancholic novel, a
often ironic take on the breviary. dent named Ed, fleeing unspea- writer haunted by his double blurs
It is in the form of a collection of let- kable tragedy, arrives on the Baltic the line between past and present,
ters that begins by looking at early island of Hiddensee. Long shrouded fiction and reality, in his attempt to
Christian cosmology and follows in myth, the island is a notorious des- outrun the unknown. ”Please come
the Biblical mutations of the angel, tination for hippies, idealists and to Skogskyrkogården tomorrow at 2.
from Babylon to the present day. As those at odds with the East German I have a story I want to tell you.” Lena
it progresses, Raoul Schrott weaves state. On the island, Ed stumbles up- agrees to Christoph’s out-of-the-blue
in accounts ranging from ancient on the Klausner, Hiddensee’s most request, though the two have never
Greek legends of the origin of light popular restaurant, and ends up met. In Stockholm’s Woodland Ceme-
to the medieval darkness of the washing dishes there, despite his tery, he tells her his story, which is
eclipse. But there is more here than lack of papers. Although he is keen also somehow hers. Twenty years
meets the eye: The letters are to remain on the side-lines, Ed feels before, he loved a woman named
addressed to an unnamed “other” drawn to the charismatic Kruso, un- Magdalena — an actress like Lena,
and chart the course of an elusive official leader of the seasonal workers. with her looks, her personality, her
affair. They are, we come to realize, Everyone dances to Kruso’s tune. past. Their breakup inspired him to
a declaration of love – or, more ac- He is on a mission – but to what end, write his first novel, about the time
curately, of yearning. But they are and at what cost? Ed finds himself they were together, and in its scenes
also a far-reaching poetic essay pulled ever deeper into the island’s Lena recognizes the uncanny, intimate
which moves between etymological rituals, and in ever greater need of details of her own relationship with
history, anthropological anecdote, Kruso’s acceptance and affection. an aspiring writer, Chris. Is it possible
philosophy and disquisition on the As the wave of history washes over that she and Chris are living the same
nature of art. The text is supple- the German Democratic Republic, lives as Magdalena and Christoph
mented by sumptuous illustrations the friends’ grip on reality loosens two decades apart? Are they headed
by Arnold Mario Dall’O that chart and life on the island will never be towards the same scripted separation?
the stories of the saints, and the the same. Or, in the fever of writing, has Christoph
result is a unique dialogue between lost track of what is real and what is
literature and art: an extraordinary imagined? In this subtle, kaleidoscopic
and rare book about love. tale, Peter Stamm exposes a funda-
mental human yearning: to beat life’s
mysteries by forcing answers on
questions that have yet to be fully
asked.
13Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Seven Nights Elephant You Would Have Missed Me
Sieben Nächte Elefant Ich freue mich, dass ich
geboren bin
SIMON STRAUS MARTIN SUTER BIRGIT VANDERBEKE
Translated by Eva and Lee Bacon Translated by Jamie Bulloch Translated by Jamie Bulloch
Aufbau Verlag/Blumenbar, Diogenes Verlag, 978-3257069709 Piper Verlag, 978-3492311120
978-3351050412 4th Estate (UK), HarperCollins (US), Peirene Press, 978-1908670526
Rare Bird Books, 978-1644280515 978-0008313760 154 pages, SC
155 pages, SC 352 pages, SC
It’s night and a young man is sitting What would you do if you woke A family is torn apart by their dream
writing at a table. He‘s afraid. Afraid up to see a living, breathing, tiny, of a better future in the West. A true
of having to decide – on a woman, glowing, pink elephant? If you’re story narrated through the eyes of a
a group of friends, an annual holiday anything like Schoch, who lives on child. West Germany in the early 60s:
destination. He’s afraid of becom- the streets of Zürich, down on his A little girl arrives with her parents
ing numb to emotion. Afraid of luck, you might well think it’s time from East Germany in a camp for
growing up. But all that is about to to put away the bottle before your displaced people. The girl‘s father is
change. An acquaintance makes hallucinations get any stranger, abusive, the mother ignores her.
him a proposition: Each night at and go back to sleep. But what if She is soon to celebrate her seventh
seven o’clock, he must commit one the tiny pink elephant is still there birthday and all she wants is a cat.
of the seven deadly sins. He must when you wake up? And it clearly Instead, she receives an illuminated
be greedy, show pride, give in to needs someone to take care of it? globe. The girl can‘t hide her disap-
lust… he must decide how far he is What if you then discover it’s been pointment – but then she discovers
truly willing to go in his efforts to created through genetic engineer- that the globe offers her a way to
stave off habit and ennui and save ing by a group of scientists who just escape the misery of the camp.
his own life. The most widely re- want to use it to get rich and don’t
viewed, discussed and recom- care about the elephant’s welfare?
mended German language debut And that they’re in cahoots with a
of the last decade, Seven Nights circus and will stop at nothing to get
earned Simon Strauß praise from it back? What if this little elephant
the Tagesspiegel newspaper as is about to change your life?
“one of the greatest talents of his
generation” but also one of the
most controversial.
14Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
A Man in Love The End of Loneliness Hooligan
Ein liebender Mann Vom Ende der Einsamkeit Hool
MARTIN WALSER BENEDICT WELLS PHILIPP WINKLER
Translated by David Dollenmayer Translated by Charlotte Collins Translated by Bradley Schmidt
Rowohlt Verlag, 978-3499253508 Diogenes Verlag, 978-3257244441 Aufbau Verlag, 978-3351036454
Arcade Publishing, 978-1628728736 Sceptre, 978-0143134008 Arcade Publishing, 978-1628728675
288 pages, HC 272 pages, SC 304 pages, HC
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is so Jules Moreau’s sheltered childhood We‘ve all got two families: The one
famous his servant auctions off is shattered by the sudden death we‘re born with and the one we
locks of his hair and children and of his parents. At boarding school choose ourselves. Heiko hasn‘t fin-
adults recite from his many works he and his siblings are forced to live ished school. His father is an alco-
by memory. When he was a young apart causing a lasting rupture to holic, his mother has left them. He’s
poet his first novel, a story of love their relationship, and the once viva- not one of society‘s winners, but he
and romantic fervour ending in sui- cious and fearless Jules retreats has his chosen family, the pack of
cide, was an international sensation into himself – until he meets Alva, soccer hooligans he‘s grown up
that set off a wave of self-inflicted a kindred soul caught in her own with. After rising gradually through
deaths across Europe. Now seventy- grief. Fifteen years pass and the the ranks, he‘s now recog-nized in
three, sought-after and busy with siblings remain strangers, bound the stands of his home team and
scientific pursuits and responsi- by tragedy and struggling to recover beyond the stadium walls where,
bilities to the Grand Duke, he has the family they once were. Jules, after the game, he and his gang
fallen in love with nineteen-year- still adrift, is anchored only by his represent their city in brutal orga-
old Ulrike von Levetzow. At the spa desires to be a writer and to reunite nized brawls with hooligans from
in Marienbad, they exchange with Alva. A kaleidoscopic family other localities. Philipp Winkler‘s
glances, witty words. In the social saga told through the fractured widely acclaimed novel is an intimate,
whirl they find each other. On the lives of the three Moreau siblings, devastating portrait of working-
promenade, they parade together alongside a faltering, recovering class, post-industrial urban life on
arm in arm. Time spent away from love story, The End of Loneliness is the fringes, and a universal story
her is sleepless, and when they kiss a stunning meditation on the power about masculinity in the twenty-
it is in the “Goethean” way, from his of our memories, of what can be first century. Narrated with lyrical
books: a matter of souls, not mouths lost and what can never be let go. authenticity by Heiko himself, it
or lips. When he proposes, Ulrike With inimitable compassion and captures the desperation and
and her mother are already pre- luminous, affecting prose, Benedict violence that permeate his world,
paring to leave. In a storm of emo- Wells examines what it means to along with the yearning for brother-
tion, torn between despair and find a way through life, never losing hood.
undying hope, he begins an elegy hope of finding someone to go with
in his coach as he pursues her: The you.
Marienbad Elegy, one of his last
great works. Martin Walser tells an
witty, moving, tender story of im-
possible love and the mysterious
ways of art.
15Fiction
____________________________
The Club
Der Club
TAKIS WÜRGER
Translated by Charlotte Collins
Kein & Aber, 978-3036959726
Grove Press (US), 978-0802128966
256 pages, HC
After an idyllic childhood among the
rolling hills and forests of North
Germany, fate leads Hans into the
guardianship of his eccentric English
aunt, Alex. A professor of art history
at Cambridge, Alex will make sure
his application to St John’s College
is accepted, but in return Hans must
help her investigate a secretive Cam-
bridge institution known as the Pitt
Club. The club has existed for cen-
turies, its long legacy of tradition,
privilege, and decadence largely
unquestioned. Hans is drawn into a
glamorous world of debauchery
and macho solidarity. And when he
falls in love with fellow student
Charlotte the stakes of his deception
are raised. For there are dark secrets
in the club’s history, as well as in its
present – and Hans soon finds him-
self in the inner sanctum of a dan-
gerous institution. A provoca-tive
and timely novel from a highly
regarded young writer, The Club is
an invitation into a world behind
closed doors, one of long-held
secrets, hallowed history and toxic
behaviour.
16Non-Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
The Pianist from Syria. Scatterbrain Winterlust.
A memoir Finding Beauty in the
Fiercest Season
Und die Vögel werden Irren ist nützlich! Als die Winter noch Winter
singen. Warum die Schwächen waren.
Ich, der Pianist aus den des Gehirns unsere Geschichte einer Jahreszeit
Trümmern Stärken sind
AEHAM AHMAD HENNING BECK BERND BRUNNER
Translated by Emanuel Bergmann Translated by Henning Beck Translated by Mary Catherine Lawlo
S. Fischer Verlag, 978-3103973174 Goldmann, 978-3442159581 Galiani Verlag, 978-3869711294
Scribe, 978-1501173493 Greystone Books, 978-1771644013 Greystone Books, 978-1771643528
288 pages, HC 352 pages, HC 280 pages, HC
This true account of a pianist’s es- In Scatterbrain, we learn why per- In Winterlust, a farmer painstak-
cape to Germany from wartorn fectionism is pointless. Boredom ingly photographs five thousand
Syria offers a deeply personal pers- awakens the muse, distractions snowflakes, each one dramatically
pective on the most devastating spark creativity and misjudging different from the next. Indigenous
refugee crisis of this century. time creates valuable memories. peoples thrive on frozen terrain
Aeham Ahmad, a second-gener- These are just some of the benefits where famous explorers perish.
ation Palestinian refugee, was born of our faulty minds – the faults them- Icicles reach deep underwater, then
to a blind violinist and carpenter selves being secret weapons that explode. Rooms warmed by crack-
who taught him from an early age prove our superiority to computers ling fires fill with scents of cinnamon,
to love music and play the piano. and artificial intelligence. The hilarious cloves and pine. Skis carve into
After being forced to flee the Israeli– asides and brain-boosting advice powdery slopes and iceboats
Palestinian conflict, Aeham’s family from award-winning neuroscientist traverse glacial lakes. This lovingly
had built a new life in Syria, in Yar- Henning Beck make for delightful illustrated meditation on winter in-
mouk camp, home to more than reading throughout, as we take on tertwines the spectacular with the
160,000 Palestinian refugees. board the most cutting-edge neuro- everyday, expertly capturing the
Before they could return to their science our brains will (maybe nev- essence of this beloved yet dan-
homeland, another fight overran er) remember. gerous season – all the more pre-
their asylum. Their only haven was cious in an era of climate change.
in music and in each other. Forced
to leave his family behind, Aeham
sought a safe place for them to
call home and build a better life,
taking solace in the indestructible
bond between fathers and sons to
keep moving forward.
Heart-wrenching yet ultimately full
of hope, and told in a raw and
poignant voice, The Pianist from
Syria is a gripping portrait of one
man’s search for a peaceful life for
his family and of a country being
torn apart as the world watches in
horror.
17Non-Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
The Mood of the World A German Officer in Along the Trenches.
Occupied Paris. A Journey through Eastern
The War Journals, 1941-1945 Europe to Isfahan
Das Gefühl der Welt. Strahlungen I Entlang den Gräben.
Über die Macht von Strahlungen II Eine Reise durch das östliche
Stimmungen Europa bis nach Isfahan
HEINZ BUDE ERNST JÜNGER NAVID KERMANI
Translated by Simon Garnett Translated by Thomas Hansen Translated by Navid Kermani
Hanser Verlag, 978-3446250659 dtv, 978-3423109840, 978-3423109857 C.H. Beck Verlag, 978-3406714023
Polity Press, Columbia University Press, Polity Books,
HC: 978-1509519934, SC: 978-1509519941 978-0231127400 HC: 978-1509535569, SC: 978-1509535576
120 pages, HC, SC 496 pages, HC HC: 400 pages, SC: 256 pages
In many western societies today, Ernst Jünger was one of the most im- Between Germany and Russia is a
optimism has given way to a deep portant – and most controversial – region strewn with monuments to
unease and sense of foreboding. twentieth-century German writers. the horrors of war, genocide and
After the financial crisis, many people Decorated for bravery in World War I disaster – the bloodlands where
feel worse off and the future seems and author of Storm of Steel, the ac- the murderous regimes of Hitler and
bleak. The mood has changed – claimed memoire of the Western Front, Stalin unleashed the violence that
that’s clear. But what is „the mood“? he depicted the horrors of war frankly, scarred the twentieth century and
How can feelings be shared by even as he extolled its glories. As a shaped so much of the world we
many people, and how do these Wehrmacht captain during World War II, know today. In September 2016 the
shared feelings shape the course Jünger kept a detailed journal in German-Iranian writer Navid
of events? Sociologist Heinz Bude occupied Paris and continued writing Kermani set out to discover this
offers a highly original analysis of on the Eastern Front and in Germany, land and to travel along the trenches
this vital but neglected topic. until the defeat came – writings that that are now re-emerging in Europe,
Moods, he argues, are ways of are of major historical and literary sig- from his home in Cologne through
being in the world. Moods shape nificance. Jünger’s Paris journals doc- Eastern Germany to the Baltics, and
how we experience the world, but ument his Francophile excitement, from there south to the Caucasus
they are not purely private. On the romantic affairs, and fascination with and to Isfahan in Iran, the home of
contrary, they give basic colour to botany and entomology, alongside his parents.
our collective existence and exper- mystical and religious ruminations This beautifully written travel diary,
ience. They are crucial in determi- and trenchant observations on the enlivened by conversations with
ning our political outlook and pref- occupation and the politics of collab- the people Kermani meets along
erences, our attitudes and identi- oration. While working as a mail censor, the way, brings to life the tragic
ties, and they provide much of the he led the privileged life of an officer, history of these troubled lands and
energy for forms of collective action, encountering artists such as Céline, shows how that history leaves its
including social movements that Cocteau, Braque, and Picasso. His traces in the present. It will be of
seem to appear suddenly from notes from the Caucasus depict the great interest to anyone concerned
nowhere. With the growing signifi- chaos after Stalingrad and atrocities with current affairs and with the
cance of the politics of discontent, on the Eastern Front. On returning to events that have shaped and
Bude’s insightful analysis of the Paris, Jünger observed the French continue to shape the world we
power of collective moods could resistance and was close to the live in today.
not be more relevant. His book will German military conspirators who
appeal to anyone who wants to plotted to assassinate Hitler in 1944.
understand how our societies are After fleeing France he re-joined his
changing in these profoundly family as Germany’s capitulation
uncertain times. approached. Both a participant
and a commentator; close to the
horrors of history but often distanc-
ing himself from them, Jünger turned
his life and experiences into a work
of art. These wartime journals, with
their insights into the upheavals of
the twentieth century, appear in
English for the first time.
18Non-Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
The Zookeepers’ War. I Have No Regrets. A World on Edge
An Incredible True Story Diaries, 1955–1963
from the Cold War
Der Zoo der Anderen. Ich bedaure nichts. Kometenjahre 1918.
Als die Stasi ihr Herz für Tagebücher 1955-1963 Die Welt im Aufbruch
Brillenbären entdeckte
& Helmut Schmidt mit
Pandas nachrüstete
J.W. MOHNHAUPT BRIGITTE REIMANN DANIEL SCHÖNPFLUG
Translated by Shelley Frisch Translated by Lucy Jones Translated by Jefferson Chase
Hanser Verlag, 978-3446255043 Aufbau Verlag, 978-3746615363 S. Fischer Verlag, 978-3100024398
Simon & Schuster, 978-1501188497 Seagull Books, 978-0857426680 Picador (UK), Metropolitan Books (US),
272 pages, HC 432 pages, HC 978-1627797627
320 pages, HC
A quirky piece of Cold War history un- Frank and refreshing, Brigitte The story of the aftermath of World
like anything you’ve heard before, Reimann’s collected diaries provide War I, a transformative time when a
The Zookeepers’ War is an epic tale a candid account of life in socialist new world seemed possible, told from
of desperate rivalries, human follies Germany. With an upbeat tempo the viewpoint of people, famous and
and an animal-mad city, where zoos and amusing tone, I Have No Regrets ordinary, who lived through the tur-
became a focus of politics by other contains detailed accounts of the moil. Sculptor Käthe Kollwitz, whose
means. Berlin’s two zoos quickly be- author’s love affairs, daily life, writing son died in the war, is translating
came symbols of the divided city’s and reflections. Like the heroines of sorrow and loss into art. Captain
two halves. So it was not very sur- her stories, Reimann was impetuous Harry Truman is running a men’s
prising when the head zookeepers and outspoken, addressing issues haberdashery in Kansas City, hardly
on either side started an animal and sensibilities otherwise repressed expecting he will soon go bankrupt
arms race, stockpiling pandas and in the German Democratic Republic. and then become president of the
hippos rather than nuclear war- She followed the state’s call for artists United States. Moina Michael is
heads. Soon, state funds were to leave their ivory towers and en- about to invent the remembrance
being quietly diverted to give new gage with the people, moving to poppy, a symbol of sacrifice that will
animals lavish welcomes worthy of the new town of Hoyerswerda to work stand for generations to come.
visiting dignitaries. West German part-time at a nearby industrial Meanwhile Virginia Woolf is ques-
presidential candidates talked about plant and run writing classes for tioning whether that sacrifice was
zoo policy on the campaign trail. the workers. Her diaries and letters worth it, and George Grosz is so
And politicians on both sides of the provide a fascinating parallel to her revolted by the violence on the
Wall became convinced that, if their fictional writing. By turns shocking, streets of Berlin that he decides
zoo was proved to be inferior, that passionate, unflinching and bitter – everything is meaningless.
would mean their country’s whole but above all life-affirming – they Daniel Schönpflug deftly describes
ideology was too. offer an unparalleled insight into this watershed time as it was expe-
what life was like during the first rienced on the ground: open-ended,
decades of the GDR. unfathomable, its outcome unclear.
Combining a multitude of acutely
observed details, he depicts a world
suspended between enthusiasm
and disappointment, one in which
the window of opportunity opened
suddenly, only to close again quickly.
19Planning and Organisation
____________________________ ____________________________
Planning and organisation: With support from:
Frankfurter Buchmesse German Federal Foreign Office
Braubachstraße 16
60311 Frankfurt am Main ____________________________
buchmesse.de Contact:
For questions please contact
____________________________ Bärbel Becker.
Editing: E-mail: becker@buchmesse.de
Riky Stock, German Book Office, Phone: +49 (0) 69 2102 258
New York buchmesse.de/german_collecti-
ve_stands
Design, setting:
weirauch-mediadesign.de ____________________________
© Frankfurter Buchmesse GmbH,
Proof reading: Frankfurt am Main 2020.
Katharina Gewehr, No reproduction without prior
Frankfurt am Main permission of the publisher.
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