50 Books That Travel 2020

High up in the Swiss mountains there‘s an old luxurious hotel, steeped in tradition and faded grandeur. Once a year,...

High up in the Swiss mountains there‘s an old luxurious hotel, steeped in tradition and faded grandeur. Once a year, when the famous New Year‘s Eve Ball takes place and guests arrive from all around the world, excitement returns to its vast hallways. Seventeen-year-old Sophie is kept busy along with the rest of the staff, making sure everything goes according to plan. But unexpected problems keep arising, and some of the guests are not who they pretend to be. Very soon, Sophie finds herself in the middle of a perilous adventure, at risk of losing not only her job, but also her heart.

Ernst Jünger was one of the most important – and most controversial – twentieth-century German writers. Decorated for bravery in...

Ernst Jünger was one of the most important – and most controversial – twentieth-century German writers. Decorated for bravery in World War I and author of Storm of Steel, the acclaimed memoire of the Western Front, he depicted the horrors of war frankly, even as he extolled its glories. As a Wehrmacht captain during World War II, Jünger kept a detailed journal in occupied Paris and continued writing on the Eastern Front and in Germany, until the defeat came – writings that are of major historical and literary significance. Jünger’s Paris journals document his Francophile excitement, romantic affairs, and fascination with botany and entomology, alongside mystical and religious ruminations and trenchant observations on the occupation and the politics of collaboration.

While working as a mail censor, he led the privileged life of an officer, encountering artists such as Céline, Cocteau, Braque, and Picasso. His notes from the Caucasus depict the chaos after Stalingrad and atrocities on the Eastern Front. On returning to Paris, Jünger observed the French resistance and was close to the German military conspirators who plotted to assassinate Hitler in 1944. After fleeing France he re-joined his family as Germany’s capitulation approached. Both a participant and a commentator; close to the horrors of history but often distancing 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.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is so famous his servant auctions off locks of his hair and children and adults recite...

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is so famous his servant auctions off locks of his hair and children and adults recite from his many works by memory. When he was a young poet his first novel, a story of love and romantic fervour ending in suicide, was an international sensation that set off a wave of self-inflicted deaths across Europe. Now seventythree, sought-after and busy with scientific pursuits and responsibilities to the Grand Duke, he has fallen in love with nineteen-year-old Ulrike von Levetzow.

At the spa in Marienbad, they exchange glances, witty words. In the social whirl they find each other. On the promenade, they parade together arm in arm. Time spent away from her is sleepless, and when they kiss it is in the “Goethean” way, from his books: a matter of souls, not mouths or lips. When he proposes, Ulrike and her mother are already preparing to leave. In a storm of emotion, torn between despair and undying hope, he begins an elegy in his coach as he pursues her: The Marienbad Elegy, one of his last great works. Martin Walser tells an witty, moving, tender story of impossible love and the mysterious ways of art.

A Slap in the Face could not be more timely in this age of mass migration, much of it driven...

A Slap in the Face could not be more timely in this age of mass migration, much of it driven by war and the aftermath of war. It tells the story of Karim, an Iraqi refugee living in Germany whose right to asylum has been revoked in the wake of Saddam Hussein’s defeat. But Hussein wasn’t the only reason Karim left.

As Abbas Khider relates the story, we learn not only about the secret struggles Karim faced in his homeland, but also the battles he has to go through with prejudice, distrust, poverty and bureaucracy as he attempts to make a new life in Germany. When he erupts in frustration at his caseworker and finally forces her to listen to his story, we get an account of a contemporary life upended by politics and violence. It is told with a warmth and humour that, while surprising, does nothing to lessen the outrages Karim describes.

The story of the aftermath of World War I, a transformative time when a new world seemed possible, told from...

The story of the aftermath of World War I, a transformative time when a new world seemed possible, told from the viewpoint of people, famous and ordinary, who lived through the turmoil. Sculptor Käthe Kollwitz, whose son died in the war, is translating sorrow and loss into art. Captain Harry Truman is running a men’s haberdashery in Kansas City, hardly expecting he will soon go bankrupt and then become president of the United States. Moina Michael is about to invent the remembrance poppy, a symbol of sacrifice that will stand for generations to come. Meanwhile Virginia Woolf is questioning whether that sacrifice was worth it, and George Grosz is so revolted by the violence on the streets of Berlin that he decides everything is meaningless.

Daniel Schönpflug deftly describes this watershed time as it was experienced on the ground: open-ended, 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.

How did Alfred Wegener, son of a minister from Berlin, find himself in the most isolated spot on earth in...

How did Alfred Wegener, son of a minister from Berlin, find himself in the most isolated spot on earth in 1930, attempting to survive an un- thinkably cold winter in the middle of Greenland? In All the Land, Jo Lendle chronicles Wegener’s extraordinary journey, from his childhood in Germany to this, the most unforgiving corner of the planet Wegener’s life was anything but ordinary.

He grew up surrounded by children at the orphanage his parents ran, and he felt driven by his scientific spirit, not only to find answers to big questions, but also to seek solitude. Though Wegener’s life ended in tragedy during his long winter in Greenland, he left us with a scientific legacy: His theory of continental drift was mocked by his peers and only recognized decades after his death. In a tale that is both thrilling and tender, Lendle tells us the story of this great adventurer and the experiences that shaped him.

Between Germany and Russia is a region strewn with monuments to the horrors of war, genocide and disaster – the...

Between Germany and Russia is a region strewn with monuments to the horrors of war, genocide and disaster – the bloodlands where the murderous regimes of Hitler and Stalin unleashed the violence that scarred the twentieth century and shaped so much of the world we know today. In September 2016 the German-Iranian writer Navid Kermani set out to discover this land and to travel along the trenches that are now re-emerging in Europe, from his home in Cologne through Eastern Germany to the Baltics, and from there south to the Caucasus and to Isfahan in Iran, the home of his parents.

This beautifully written travel diary, enlivened by conversations with the people Kermani meets along the way, brings to life the tragic history of these troubled lands and shows how that history leaves its traces in the present. It will be of great interest to anyone concerned with current affairs and with the events that have shaped and continue to shape the world we live in today.

Victoria has just moved back from Zurich to her hometown, Bucharest, when the bank where she works is robbed. Put...

Victoria has just moved back from Zurich to her hometown, Bucharest, when the bank where she works is robbed. Put on leave so that she can process the trauma of the robbery, Victoria strolls around town. Each street triggers sudden visions as memories from her childhood under the Ceaușescu regime begin to mix with the radically changed city and the strange world in which she now finds herself. As the walls of reality begin to crumble, Victoria and her former self cross paths with the bank robber and a rich cast of characters, weaving a vivid portrait of Romania and one woman’s self-discovery.

In her stunning second novel, Swiss-Romanian writer Dana Grigorcea paints a series of extraordinarily colourful pictures. With humour and wit, she describes a world of myriad surprises in which new and old cultures are woven together – a world bursting with character and spirit.

Uwe Johnson started writing this book in 1967. It contains one chapter for each day from August 1967 to August...

Uwe Johnson started writing this book in 1967. It contains one chapter for each day from August 1967 to August 1968, and recounts the tale of Gesine Cresspahl, a single mother and a German émigré in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and of her ten-year-old daughter, Marie. It is a story of work and school, of friends and lovers and the countless small encounters with neighbours and strangers that make up big-city life.

It is an everyday story, but one that juxtaposes tales of the mother’s childhood in Nazi Germany with tales of 60s America. Gesine and Marie are among the most memorable and engaging characters in literature. At once monumental and intimate, sweeping and full of incident, stylistically adventurous and endlessly absorbing, Anniversaries is quite simply one of the great books of our time.

A brilliant literary debut about belonging, family and love, and about the enigmatic nature of identity. Beside Myself is the...

A brilliant literary debut about belonging, family and love, and about the enigmatic nature of identity. Beside Myself is the disturbing and exhilarating story of a family, spanning four generations.

At its heart it‘s a woman’s search for her twin brother. When Anton goes missing and the only clue is a postcard sent from Istanbul, Ali leaves her life in Berlin to find him. Without her twin, the sharer of her memories and the mirror of her own self, she feels lost. In a city steeped in political and social upheaval, where you can buy gender-changing drugs on the street, Ali’s search for her missing brother – for her own identity – will take her on a journey to connection and belonging.

On a warm September morning a man is found unconscious in a cage at the entrance to the offices of...

On a warm September morning a man is found unconscious in a cage at the entrance to the offices of one of Germany’s biggest magazines. He is soon identified as a manager of the company, and he has been tortured. Three days later, another manager appears in a similar way.

Chastity Riley and her new colleague, Ivo Stepanovic, are tasked with uncovering the truth behind the attacks, an investigation that goes far beyond the revenge they first suspect to the dubious past shared by both victims. Travelling to the South of Germany, they step into a hothouse world of boarding schools, where secrets are currency, and monsters are bred ... monsters who will stop at nothing to protect themselves.

Did you know that trees have parents and grandparents with wrinkles? That tree-kids spend hundreds of years at school? That...

Did you know that trees have parents and grandparents with wrinkles? 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 imagination and storytelling style with children, asking surprising questions about trees, with exciting quizzes, photographs and hands-on activities to help even the most reluctant learners find the answers.

Amal, Hammoudi and Youssef are young and ambitious – the face of modern Syria. But when civil war tears through...

Amal, Hammoudi and Youssef are young and ambitious – the face of modern Syria. But when civil war tears through their homeland they are left with a terrible choice: risk death by staying in the country they love, or flee in search of a new life elsewhere? From one of Germany‘s most talented literary voices comes this intricately woven story of brutality and loss, and of how hope can shine through when the darkness feels overwhelming.

Jette’s brother Emil, who had been sick since before she could remember, has now died. The feelings that losing him...

Jette’s brother Emil, who had been sick since before she could remember, has now died. The feelings that losing him evoke in her are huge and confusing. Most simply, it feels as though a dark raincloud has descended over her family. And then there‘s the ridiculous fact that nobody seems to know what happens after you die, and yet adults often talk as if they do.

Told in the first-person voice of an observant ten-year-old girl, Do Fish Sleep? by Jens Raschke is an honest, darkly funny look at loss, memory and the search for answers. Originally performed as a 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 publication and has been translated into several languages

What would you do if you woke up to see a living, breathing, tiny, glowing, pink elephant? If you’re anything...

What would you do if you woke up to see a living, breathing, tiny, glowing, pink elephant? If you’re anything like Schoch, who lives on the streets of Zürich, down on his luck, you might well think it’s time to put away the bottle before your hallucinations get any stranger, and go back to sleep. But what if the tiny pink elephant is still there when you wake up? And it clearly needs someone to take care of it?

What if you then discover it’s been created through genetic engineering by a group of scientists who just want to use it to get rich and don’t care about the elephant’s welfare? And that they’re in cahoots with a circus and will stop at nothing to get it back? What if this little elephant is about to change your life?

Set against the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials of 1963, Annette Hess’s international bestseller is a harrowing yet ultimately uplifting coming-of-age novel....

Set against the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials of 1963, Annette Hess’s international bestseller is a harrowing yet ultimately uplifting coming-of-age novel. It tells the story of Eva, a young woman caught between the conflicting expectations of society and her family. Opposing her parents and her fiancé alike, she works as a translator at the trials, where she has a unique opportunity to speak truth to power, as she fights to expose the dark truths of her nation’s past.

In these hair-raising stories by celebrated filmmaker and author, Rudolph Herzog, millennial Berliners discover that their city is still home...

In these hair-raising stories by celebrated filmmaker and author, Rudolph Herzog, millennial Berliners discover that their city is still home to many unsettled – and deeply unsettling – ghosts. And the ghosts are not very happy about the newcomers. The molly-coddled daughter of a rich tech executive finds herself slowly tormented by the spirit of a Weimar-era labourer, and a German intelligence officer confronts a troll that’s wreaking havoc at the city‘s unfinished new airport.

An undead Nazi sympathizer romances a Greek emigre, while Turkish migrants curse the gentrifiers that have evicted them. Herzog‘s keen observational eye and acid wit turn modern city stories into deliciously dark satires that ride the knife-edge of suspense and terror.

It is 1988, the year before the Berlin Wall came down. Jonathan Fabrizius, a journalist living in West Germany, is...

It is 1988, the year before the Berlin Wall came down. Jonathan Fabrizius, a journalist living in West Germany, is asked to travel to the contested lands of former East Prussia, where the Nazi legacy lives on in buildings and fortifications, to write about the route of a car rally. It‘s a plum job, but his interest is piqued by a personal connection. It was here that he was born, among the refugees fleeing the advancing Russians in 1945.

Homeland is a nuanced work from one of the great modern European storytellers. It tells of a typical German who comes face to face with his painful family history, and it addresses some devastating questions about the complicity of ordinary Germans in the war.

We‘ve all got two families: The one we‘re born with and the one we choose ourselves. Heiko hasn‘t finished school....

We‘ve all got two families: The one we‘re born with and the one we choose ourselves. Heiko hasn‘t finished school. His father is an alcoholic, his mother has left them. He’s not one of society‘s winners, but he has his chosen family, the pack of soccer hooligans he‘s grown up with. After rising gradually through the ranks, he‘s now recognized in the stands of his home team and beyond the stadium walls where, after the game, he and his gang represent their city in brutal organized brawls with hooligans from other localities.

Philipp Winkler‘s widely acclaimed novel is an intimate, devastating portrait of workingclass, post-industrial urban life on the fringes, and a universal story about masculinity in the twentyfirst century. Narrated with lyrical authenticity by Heiko himself, it captures the desperation and violence that permeate his world, along with the yearning for brotherhood.

Frank and refreshing, Brigitte Reimann’s collected diaries provide a candid account of life in socialist Germany. With an upbeat tempo...

Frank and refreshing, Brigitte Reimann’s collected diaries provide a candid account of life in socialist Germany. With an upbeat tempo and amusing tone, I Have No Regrets contains detailed accounts of the author’s love affairs, daily life, writing and reflections. Like the heroines of her stories, Reimann was impetuous and outspoken, addressing issues and sensibilities otherwise repressed in the German Democratic Republic. She followed the state’s call for artists to leave their ivory towers and engage with the people, moving to the new town of Hoyerswerda to work part-time at a nearby industrial plant and run writing classes for the workers.

Her diaries and letters provide a fascinating parallel to her fictional writing. By turns shocking, passionate, unflinching and bitter – but above all life-affirming – they offer an unparalleled insight into what life was like during the first decades of the GDR.