Books That Travel 2023

Shortlisted for the Austrian Book Prize 2022 and longlisted for the German Book Prize 2022. Clever and touching, this novel...

Shortlisted for the Austrian Book Prize 2022 and longlisted for the German Book Prize 2022. Clever and touching, this novel about an adoption in 50s Wisconsin and its aftermath explores the powerful and fatal idea of ”race“ which still shapes societies today.

Grime is the dazzling multi-voice story of four teenagers haphazardly brought together by individual tragedy and a collective love of...

Grime is the dazzling multi-voice story of four teenagers haphazardly brought together by individual tragedy and a collective love of grime, the music genre that replaced punk as the sound of the angry and the dispossessed. The first English translation of iconic Swiss-German novelist Sibylle Berg—a ruthless indictment of contemporary society and a strikingly creative manifesto for rebellion.

Igor Levit ranks among the greatest pianists of his generation, described by the New York Times as ”one of the...

Igor Levit ranks among the greatest pianists of his generation, described by the New York Times as ”one of the essential artists of our time“. But his influence reaches far beyond music: he uses his public platform to speak out against racism, anti- semitism and all forms of intolerance and prejudice. When the pandemic broke out and Levit was unable to give live concerts, he switched his piano recitals from concert halls to his living room and gained a huge international following.

‘You’ll live out your lives in a foreign country,’ Gül is warned. But the whole world is foreign when you’re...

‘You’ll live out your lives in a foreign country,’ Gül is warned. But the whole world is foreign when you’re far from your loved ones. The train ride to Germany ushers in the days of long-awaited letters, night-time telephone calls and blissful summers back home. The years of hard work will flow like water before her house in Turkey is built and she can return.

V&Q Books, 280pp, 978-3-86391-328-1

A spectacular debut that tells the story of two brothers and their father who leave Iran for Berlin in the...

A spectacular debut that tells the story of two brothers and their father who leave Iran for Berlin in the late 1980s. One of the brothers is drawn into a culture of gang crime in the Berlin suburb of Neukölln.

A darkly comedic tour de force, Identitti showcases the outsized power of social media in the current debates about identity...

A darkly comedic tour de force, Identitti showcases the outsized power of social media in the current debates about identity politics and the power of claiming your own voice.

A fascinating portrait of Iranian society from the point of view of nine women. Author Atai chronicles over forty years...

A fascinating portrait of Iranian society from the point of view of nine women. Author Atai chronicles over forty years of control of the country by Islamic religious leaders, and the stifling of all democratic impulses.

Pig has been alone for a few weeks. He gazes bleakly out of the window. Somewhere behind this heaven there...

Pig has been alone for a few weeks. He gazes bleakly out of the window. Somewhere behind this heaven there will be another heaven, and behind that another. Badger has invented a machine that allows him to travel between worlds. Exploring with the machine, he encounters God. The book tells of the happiness of finding allies. Of wanderlust and the longing for the known. About this world, the hereafter and the strange expanses in between.

Around the turn of the nineteenth century, a steady stream of young German poets and thinkers coursed to the town...

Around the turn of the nineteenth century, a steady stream of young German poets and thinkers coursed to the town of Jena to make history. Jena became the place for the young and intellectually curious, the site of a new departure, of philosophical disruption. With wit and elegance, Peter Neumann brings this remarkable circle of friends and rivals to life in Jena 1800, a work of intellectual history that is colorful and passionate, informative and intimate—as fresh and full of surprises as its subjects.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 256pp, 978-0-374-17869-7

Kalmann is a remarkable portrayal of a remote Icelandic community and the devastating impact of the decline of the herring...

Kalmann is a remarkable portrayal of a remote Icelandic community and the devastating impact of the decline of the herring and fishing industries. The tensions between this rural community and the latte-drinking townies of Reykjavík are sensitively depicted, as well as hostility and racism towards the Eastern European migrant workers. Joachim B. Schmidt – who lives in Reykjavík – has produced a suspenseful thriller with a diverse cast of well-drawn characters whose lives are subject to the conditions of the savagely beautiful Icelandic landscape.

Bitter Lemon Press, 338pp, 978-1-913394-68-4

 

The writer Felix Hartlaub died in obscurity at just 31, vanishing from Berlin in 1945. He left behind a small...

The writer Felix Hartlaub died in obscurity at just 31, vanishing from Berlin in 1945. He left behind a small oeuvre of private writings from the Second World War: fragments and observations of life from the midst of catastrophe that, with their evocative power and precision, would make a permanent place for him in German letters.

 

Pushkin Press, 160pp, 978-1-78227-844-3

The novel is based on a real crime committed in Switzerland in 1914, when a young woman was found brutally...

The novel is based on a real crime committed in Switzerland in 1914, when a young woman was found brutally murdered in the woods near Krumbach in the canton of Lucerne. The perpetrator was sentenced to death by guillotine, becoming the last person to be executed in Lucerne before the death penalty was abolished there. Krumholz describes the lives of the deaf girl Agatha and her murderer, Torecht Innozenz Hilar.

Monika Helfer turns her life experi- ence into great literature; through her novels about her family, she has become the...

Monika Helfer turns her life experi- ence into great literature; through her novels about her family, she has become the chronicler of an entire century. Lionheart is an intimate portrait, a story about care, guilt and family ties.

A woman approaching the ‘invisible years’ of middle age abandons her failing writing career to retrain as a chiropodist in...

A woman approaching the ‘invisible years’ of middle age abandons her failing writing career to retrain as a chiropodist in the East Berlin suburb of Marzahn, once the GDR’s largest prefabricated housing estate. From her intimate vantage point at the foot of the clinic chair, she observes her clients and co-workers, listening to their stories with empathy and curiosity.

My Soul Twin is an intense love story about forbidden desire, the ties that bind us, and whether we can...

My Soul Twin is an intense love story about forbidden desire, the ties that bind us, and whether we can ever truly forget what we leave behind. A modern-day Wuthering Heights from the author of international bestseller The Eighth Life.

 

Scribe, 320pp, 978-1-913348-42-7

What is it like to be young and broken in a country that is on the brink of collapse? This...

What is it like to be young and broken in a country that is on the brink of collapse? This is what acclaimed poet and sound artist Ulrike Almut Sandig shows us in her debut novel, through the story of old friends Ruth and Viktor in the last days of Communist East Germany.

Seagull Books, 172pp, 978-0-85742-983-4

Reinhard Jirgl’s strikingly individual novel The Fire Above, the Mountain Below demonstrates that he is not only unorthodox in his...

Reinhard Jirgl’s strikingly individual novel The Fire Above, the Mountain Below demonstrates that he is not only unorthodox in his approach to language, but also difficult to pin down in terms of any genre. Weaving together elements of crime story, Cold War espionage, family tragedy, and a dystopian future, he creates a tapestry of fragile humanity and menacing inhumanity.

 

Seagull, 312pp, 978-0-85742-779-3

Jacob and Fox may not have found Jacob’s brother Will, but they have found something even more unexpected in the...

Jacob and Fox may not have found Jacob’s brother Will, but they have found something even more unexpected in the Mirrorworld: happiness. Just as they give up the search to enjoy their new life together, Will appears.

 

Pushkin Children’s Books, 368pp, 978-1-78269-331-4

As a philosopher who researches questions of critical theory, Eva von Redecker provides a new critique of capitalism — and...

As a philosopher who researches questions of critical theory, Eva von Redecker provides a new critique of capitalism — and a declaration of love for human action. The book is the first philosophical analysis of new forms of activism. At their core, von Reedecker argues, is a struggle against the capitalism which is destroying both people and planet.

In May and September 1976, two severe earthquakes shake a landscape and its population in north-eastern Italy. Around a thousand...

In May and September 1976, two severe earthquakes shake a landscape and its population in north-eastern Italy. Around a thousand people die under the rubble, tens of thousands are left without shelter, many will leave their homes forever. Seven inhabitants of a remote mountain village tell of their lives, in which the earthquake has left deep traces that they are slowly learning to name.