50 Books That Travel 2020

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 It tells the story of Karim, an Iraqi refugee living in Germany whose right to asylum has been revoked in the wake of Saddam Hussein’s defeat.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.

1959, Seoul. Divided from his family by the violent tumult of the Korean civil war, Yunho arrives in South Korea‘s...

1959, Seoul. Divided from his family by the violent tumult of the Korean civil war, Yunho arrives in South Korea‘s capital searching for his oldest friend. He finds him in the arms of a mysterious dancer, Eve Moon; a woman of many names who may be a refugee fleeing the communist North, or an American spy. Beguiled by her beauty, Yunho falls desperately in love. But nothing in Seoul is what it seems. The city is crowded with double agents and soldiers, and wracked by protests and poverty. Meanwhile, across the border in North Korea, Pyongyang grows more prosperous by the day. When a series of betrayals and a brutal crime drive the friends into exile, Yunho finds himself caught in the riptide of history.

A woman moves to a London suburb near the River Lea, without knowing quite why or for how long. Over...

A woman moves to a London suburb near the River Lea, without knowing quite why or for how long. Over a series of long, solitary walks she reminisces about the rivers she has encountered during her life, from the Rhine, the river of her childhood, to the Saint Lawrence River and a stream in Tel Aviv. Filled with poignancy and poetic observation, River is an ode to nature, edgelands, and the transience of all things human.

Welcome to QualityLand, in the not-too-distant future, where everything works on automatic, from careers to relationships, and the fool proof...

Welcome to QualityLand, in the not-too-distant future, where everything works on automatic, from careers to relationships, and the fool proof algorithms of the biggest company in the world, TheShop, know what you want before you do and conveniently deliver it to your doorstep before you even order it. Peter Jobless is a machine scrapper in QualityCity who can‘t quite bring himself to destroy the imperfect machines sent his way, and has become the unwitting leader of a band of robotic 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 decides, 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.

It is July 1932 and a drowned man is found in a freight elevator in the legendary palace of entertainment...

It is July 1932 and a drowned man is found in a freight elevator in the legendary palace of entertainment on Potsdamer Platz, far from any standing water. Inspector Gereon Rath‘s hunt for a mysterious contract killer has stalled, but this new case will take him to a small town on the Polish border and confrontation with the rising Nazi party.

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.

Katja Petrowskaja wanted to create a kind of family tree, charting relatives who had scattered across many countries and continents....

Katja Petrowskaja wanted to create a kind of family tree, charting relatives who had scattered across many countries and continents. The result was this striking and highly original work of narrative nonfiction, an account of her search for meaning in the stories of her ancestors.

In a series of short meditations, Petrowskaja delves into family legends and introduces a remarkable cast of characters: Judas Stern, her great-uncle, who shot a German diplomatic attaché in 1932 and was sentenced to death; her grandfather Semyon, who went to ground with a new name during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, splitting off that branch of the family for good; her grandmother Rosa, who ran an orphanage in the Urals for Jewish deaf-mute children; her Ukrainian grandfather Vasily, who disappeared during World War II and reappeared without explanation forty-one years later; and her great-grandmother, whose name may have been Esther, who alone remained in Kiev and was killed by the Nazis.

When Gilbert Silvester, university lecturer, wakes one day from a dream that his wife has cheated on him, he flees...

When Gilbert Silvester, university lecturer, wakes one day from a dream that his wife has cheated on him, he flees – immediately, irrationally, inexplicably – to Japan. In Tokyo he discovers the travel writings of the great Japanese poet Basho. Suddenly, Gilbert finds a purpose in his directionless crisis: a pilgrimage following in the footsteps of the poet to see the moon rise over the pine islands of Matsushima.

On the way he falls in with another pilgrim, Yosa, a young Japanese student, clutching a copy of The Complete Manual of Suicide. Together, Gilbert and Yosa travel across Basho‘s disappearing Japan, one in search of his perfect ending and the other a new beginning. Serene, playful and profound, The Pine Islands is a story of the transformations we seek and the ones we find along the way.

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.

A young woman returns to her hometown, Frankfurt am Main, after living abroad for some time. Her sister Ines, a...

A young woman returns to her hometown, Frankfurt am Main, after living abroad for some time. Her sister Ines, a painter, beautiful and impetuous, who still lives in Frankfurt, soon appears and asks her for financial help. The returning sister knew this was coming. It’s how their relationship always used to work, but this time she’s determined to change things. However, many plans often succumb to the surprises of life. Just as the sister is about to drift into an affair with Ines’s lover, the two women unexpectedly grow closer.

The Hour Between Dog and Wolf is a tale of disorientation in a modern, fundamentally rootless society that has become increasingly erratic and self-absorbed. It is a powerful exploration of the difficulties of intimacy and addiction.

Nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize, this first novel by celebrated playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig is a contemporary Berlin fairy...

Nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize, this first novel by celebrated playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig is a contemporary Berlin fairy tale. Set in the former East Berlin, the story opens with a crash on the motorway. When a wolf is captured on camera at the scene, after crossing the border from Poland, it is the first of many sightings that connect a series of individuals whose paths intersect and diverge. Schimmelpfennig writes in powerful prose and has created a hypnotic and visually arresting novel.

The Sex of the Angels is a playful, often ironic take on the breviary. It is in the form of...

The Sex of the Angels is a playful, often ironic take on the breviary. It is in the form of a collection of letters that begins by looking at early Christian cosmology and follows the Biblical mutations of the angel, from Babylon to the present day.

As it progresses, Raoul Schrott weaves in accounts ranging from ancient Greek legends of the origin of light to the medieval darkness of the eclipse. But there is more here than meets the eye: The letters are addressed to an unnamed “other” and chart the course of an elusive affair. They are, we come to realize, a declaration of love – or, more accurately, of yearning. But they are also a far-reaching poetic essay which moves between etymological history, anthropological anecdote, philosophy and disquisition on the nature of art. The text is supplemented by sumptuous illustrations by Arnold Mario Dall’O that chart the stories of the saints, and the result is a unique dialogue between literature and art: an extraordinary and rare book about love.

It is 1989 and a young literature student named Ed, fleeing unspeakable tragedy, arrives on the Baltic island of Hiddensee....

It is 1989 and a young literature student named Ed, fleeing unspeakable tragedy, arrives on the Baltic island of Hiddensee. Long shrouded in myth, the island is a notorious destination for hippies, idealists and those at odds with the East German state. On the island, Ed stumbles up- on the Klausner, Hiddensee’s most popular restaurant, and ends up washing dishes there, despite his lack of papers. Although he is keen to remain on the side-lines, Ed feels drawn to the charismatic Kruso, unofficial leader of the seasonal workers. Everyone dances to Kruso’s tune.

He is on a mission – but to what end, and at what cost? Ed finds himself pulled ever deeper into the island’s rituals, and in ever greater need of Kruso’s acceptance and affection. As the wave of history washes over the German Democratic Republic, the friends’ grip on reality loosens and life on the island will never be the same.

In this alluring, melancholic novel, a writer haunted by his double blurs the line between past and present, fiction and...

In this alluring, melancholic novel, a writer haunted by his double blurs the line between past and present, fiction and reality, in his attempt to outrun the unknown. ”Please come to Skogskyrkogården tomorrow at 2. I have a story I want to tell you.” Lena agrees to Christoph’s out-of-the-blue request, though the two have never met. In Stockholm’s Woodland Cemetery, he tells her his story, which is also somehow hers. Twenty years before, he loved a woman named Magdalena — an actress like Lena, with her looks, her personality, her past. Their breakup inspired him to write his first novel, about the time they were together, and in its scenes Lena recognizes the uncanny, intimate details of her own relationship with an aspiring writer, Chris. Is it possible that she and Chris are living the same lives as Magdalena and Christoph two decades apart? Are they headed towards the same scripted separation? Or, in the fever of writing, has Christoph lost track of what is real and what is imagined? In this subtle, kaleidoscopic tale, Peter Stamm exposes a fundamental human yearning: to beat life’s mysteries by forcing answers on questions that have yet to be fully asked.

It’s night and a young man is sitting writing at a table. He‘s afraid. Afraid of having to decide –...

It’s night and a young man is sitting writing at a table. He‘s afraid. Afraid of having to decide – on a woman, a group of friends, an annual holiday destination. He’s afraid of becoming numb to emotion. Afraid of growing up. But all that is about to change. An acquaintance makes him a proposition: Each night at seven o’clock, he must commit one of the seven deadly sins. He must be greedy, show pride, give in to lust... he must decide how far he is truly willing to go in his efforts to stave off habit and ennui and save his own life.

The most widely reviewed, discussed and recommended German language debut of the last decade, Seven Nights earned Simon Strauß praise from the Tagesspiegel newspaper as “one of the greatest talents of his generation” but also one of the most controversial.

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?

A family is torn apart by their dream of a better future in the West. A true story narrated through...

A family is torn apart by their dream of a better future in the West. A true story narrated through the eyes of a child. West Germany in the early 60s: A little girl arrives with her parents from East Germany in a camp for displaced people. The girl‘s father is abusive, the mother ignores her. She is soon to celebrate her seventh birthday and all she wants is a cat. Instead, she receives an illuminated globe. The girl can‘t hide her disappointment – but then she discovers that the globe offers her a way to escape the misery of the camp.

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.

Jules Moreau’s sheltered childhood is shattered by the sudden death of his parents. At boarding school he and his siblings...

Jules Moreau’s sheltered childhood is shattered by the sudden death of his parents. At boarding school he and his siblings are forced to live apart causing a lasting rupture to their relationship, and the once vivacious and fearless Jules retreats into himself – until he meets Alva, a kindred soul caught in her own grief. Fifteen years pass and the siblings remain strangers, bound by tragedy and struggling to recover the family they once were.

Jules, still adrift, is anchored only by his desires to be a writer and to reunite with Alva. A kaleidoscopic family saga told through the fractured lives of the three Moreau siblings, alongside a faltering, recovering love story, The End of Loneliness is a stunning meditation on the power of our memories, of what can be lost and what can never be let go. With inimitable compassion and luminous, affecting prose, Benedict Wells examines what it means to find a way through life, never losing hope of finding someone to go with you.

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.