Books That Travel 2023

Austrian writer Ilse Aichinger (1921–2016) was a member of the Gruppe 47 writers’ group, which sought to renew German-language literature...

Austrian writer Ilse Aichinger (1921–2016) was a member of the Gruppe 47 writers’ group, which sought to renew German-language literature after World War II. From a wide-ranging literary career that encompassed all genres, Squandered Advice was Aichinger’s sole poetry collection.

 

Seagull Books, 112pp, 978-0-85742-978-0

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

On a summer holiday in Wales, Portia and Ben find a mysterious door set in a bramble hedge in the...

On a summer holiday in Wales, Portia and Ben find a mysterious door set in a bramble hedge in the middle of a forest. It is a portal to the Otherworld and should never be opened, but how are they supposed to know that? After all, the old stories about the wonders and dangers of the Otherworld have long been forgotten …

Pushkin Children’s Books, 320pp, 978-1-78269-345-1

 

An entertaining and informative voyage through cultural fantasies of the North, from sea monsters and a mountain-sized magnet to racist...

An entertaining and informative voyage through cultural fantasies of the North, from sea monsters and a mountain-sized magnet to racist mythmaking.

 

WW Norton, 256pp, 978-1-324-05028-5

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

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.

Kaśka Bryla weaves a gripping story about the causes of radicalization with a plea for solidarity and love. Iga, Jess...

Kaśka Bryla weaves a gripping story about the causes of radicalization with a plea for solidarity and love. Iga, Jess and Ras are outsiders in their school class. When the teenagers witness a brutal police assault one night and this outrage goes unpunished, they decide to take the law into their own hands. Twenty years later, a mysterious stranger appears who seems to know about what happened at the time.

Women in world-famous paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Courbet, Schiele, Munch. We see their bodies, their looks, their...

Women in world-famous paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Courbet, Schiele, Munch. We see their bodies, their looks, their clothes, spellbound or banished to an eternal moment. But who were they outside this moment? Martina Clavadetscher has followed the clues of their lives, letting the women tell their stories and thus giving them back a voice.

Shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2022. Lies about My Mother is two things at once: the story of a...

Shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2022. Lies about My Mother is two things at once: the story of a childhood in the 1980s, increasingly overshadowed by the father’s obsession that his wife’s excess weight is to blame for everything he can’t get: a promotion, social advancement, recognition in the small-town community. It is also an examination of these events from the perspective of today: What really happened back then? And what does all this tell us about the bigger picture: about society, which constantly affects us, whether we like it or not?

This Spiegel bestseller is a profound and clever novel about the most glamorous woman of her time, full of humour...

This Spiegel bestseller is a profound and clever novel about the most glamorous woman of her time, full of humour and insight into human nature. When Elisabeth (Sisi) becomes Empress of Austria through marriage, she enters a strictly regimented world full of stiff conventions and boring receptions. She can only es- cape when she is on extended trips or staying at her Hungarian castle, Gödöllő, where she can lead an unconstrained life and pursue her greatest passion: wild horseback hunting.

When it was erected in 1892, the Bucharest fire tower was the tallest building in the city. In 1989, during...

When it was erected in 1892, the Bucharest fire tower was the tallest building in the city. In 1989, during the uprising against the communist dictatorship, it was long gone, but it was witness to an eventful century. In his captivating novel spanning a hundred years and five generations of the Stoica firefighter family, Catalin Dorian Florescu tells of the vicissitudes of history, of family and friendship, betrayal and love, of the power of resilience and of the changing, colourful and then sad life in this metropolis.

Luise is smart, Luise is independent, Luise is an island. As a marine biologist, Luise has earned herself an excellent...

Luise is smart, Luise is independent, Luise is an island. As a marine biologist, Luise has earned herself an excellent reputation, her speciality: the sea walnut, a ghostly illuminated jellyfish in the darkness of the oceans. When Luise is asked to travel to Graz for a project with a renowned zoo, she doesn't hesitate for long. But Graz, that is also her hometown, that is the home of her absent and suddenly ill father. And this is the story of years of speechlessness and strangeness between them.

Dinçer Güçyeter tells of the fate of Turkish Greeks, of being rooted in Anatolian life, and of the challenge of...

Dinçer Güçyeter tells of the fate of Turkish Greeks, of being rooted in Anatolian life, and of the challenge of starting a new life as a guest worker and as their descendant in Germany.

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 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.

Which memories make us who we are? A hugely powerful life story: a bridge between Germany and Iraq, a great...

Which memories make us who we are? A hugely powerful life story: a bridge between Germany and Iraq, a great story of searching and re- membering. This moving and poetic novel carries within it the sounds of a whole life. A host of beautiful images reveal the full force of Abbas Khider’s writing.

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.

Doris Knecht writes about a woman who becomes a victim of stalking, proving once again she can write with fine...

Doris Knecht writes about a woman who becomes a victim of stalking, proving once again she can write with fine scepticism on the topic of people’s relationships. Four years after the death of her husband, Ruth is living alone in a house in the countryside where she was once happy with her family. Ruth has learned to appreciate being on her own. Until one day, she receives an anonymous text message from a person who seems to know more about her life than she does. 

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Spitzweg tells the story of three young German art enthusiasts who find their new relationship tested by an eccentric revenge plan and their own love triangle, with their coming-of-age mediated by way of the discussion of art.

Nominated for the German Book Prize 2022. What is art? A window to the world and a mirror of the...

Nominated for the German Book Prize 2022. What is art? A window to the world and a mirror of the soul, or just an enigmatic picture in which “original and fake” are distin- guished? In Spitzweg the narrator learns through the eccentric Carl, his new class mate shortly before graduation, how it works: art as

a form of existence. Together they pay homage to the beautiful in a sublime hideaway.