German Book Prize 2026 – The Longlist

It's over with Kar Kauz. At 35 years, the protagonist stands before the ruins of her relationship with the celebrated...

It's over with Kar Kauz. At 35 years, the protagonist stands before the ruins of her relationship with the celebrated author who ignored her desire for children for years. She tries to find distraction on Tinder but only slides into the next disaster with the hedonistic actor Andi. Not only does he already have twins, but also an ex who makes an surprise appearance inthe bedroom one morning. The longing for a child escalates into an all-consuming obsession. When the relationship with Andi fails, her novel doesn't succeed as hoped, and further dates are also unproductive, she makes a drastic decision: She will fulfill her greatest wish by herself. Even if that means becoming aperpetrator. "Anti Müller" is a social novel about the fine arts with creepy undertone, about identity-political trench warfare, and about the moral bankruptcy of pseudo-gentle contemporary men, under whose fingernails the dirt of the patriarchy still sticks.

Anton and Alma meet for the first time as exchange students in France. Years later, they run into each other...

Anton and Alma meet for the first time as exchange students in France. Years later, they run into each other at a party. They both grew up in Berlin and are studying at the same university – but that’s about all they have in common. Anton comes from a privileged background, while Alma grew up out in the suburbs of the former East with her mum and her unloving stepfather. Anton is Jewish. Alma isn’t. But they fall in love, move in together, they fight, they make up, and then fight and make up again, before Anton moves to New York to do a Master’s about the mass conversion of the Khazars to Judaism. Alma stays in Berlin on her own and finds solace in Anton’s Jewish community. After October 7th, 2023, the war in Gaza, and with escalating tensions on campus and within his own family, Anton returns to Berlin and to Alma, with whom he finds a kind of refuge. But then, a tragic turn of events tears a gash in the fabric of Anton’s life, draining all meaning from it. "Anton and Alma" tells the story of a great love in an increasingly divided world. A story about grief and loss, faith and belonging – and about how we all try to imbue our lives with meaning. A heartbreaking, courageous novel about what it means to be human.

Towards the end of the 1980s, a cemetery in an Italian coastal town collapses into the sea. An urn washed...

Towards the end of the 1980s, a cemetery in an Italian coastal town collapses into the sea. An urn washed up on the beach reveals a secret: twenty-five-year-old Pinò learns that his father had another son before him. As Pinò realises that he was always intended merely as a replacement, he begins to investigate his father’s hidden past. But in doing so, he risks having his own secret exposed. The enigmatic features of his body threaten to give him away: he has no navel, his voice produces no echo, and his breath leaves no trace in the cold. For Pinò was not always human. In "Aus anderem Holz", Giuliano Musio reinterprets the Pinocchio story. The puppet has become a young man, but being human has remained alien to him. A novel about the burden of one’s origins and the longing for self-determination.

Invited to a reading from his unfinished manuscript, the narrator travels to Mecklenburg in June 2025. This lake-rich landscape is...

Invited to a reading from his unfinished manuscript, the narrator travels to Mecklenburg in June 2025. This lake-rich landscape is the very place he called "the North" in the summer of 1979, the period his text is about. An unexpected encounter seems to bring his novella to life, raising the question of what was and what really is. Was he too young and too carefree for true love back then, and is it too late now? Have only illusions and utopias been lost, or also the aspirations and hopes that are missing from a present in which the old fear of war seems real once more? Perhaps the love story in Water in August is also a school of seeing, of recognising and of writing, and an attempt to come to terms with the world, with people and with one’s own history as accurately and vividly as possible.

Heimesbach in the Hunsrück is a fictional place where ninety years of German history have become embedded in its walls...

Heimesbach in the Hunsrück is a fictional place where ninety years of German history have become embedded in its walls and biographies. It is a community that actively conceals its past whilst simultaneously becoming a refuge for those seeking safety here. Moving fluidly across generations, the narrative spans from the 1930s rise of local Nazi groups who systematically destroyed Jewish families, to wartime profit-seekers who rebranded themselves as innocent bystanders after the war. Decades later, the Karimpour family flees the revolution in Iran to seek refuge in this quiet village, completely unaware that their new home rests upon unatoned historical crimes. Shida Bazyar crafts a masterful narrative mosaic about the burden of history, the lie of a new beginning, and the desire to finally find a home.

Konstantin and Lada are siblings, divided by an unbridgeable silence. While Konstantin works in Moscow for a research institute responsible...

Konstantin and Lada are siblings, divided by an unbridgeable silence. While Konstantin works in Moscow for a research institute responsible for preserving Lenin's body, Lada lives in Berlin as an artist. They have had no contact since the outbreak of the war. Lada cannot understand why Konstantin stayed in Moscow, and Konstantin has a task that is causing him headaches: his godfather has ordered him to steal rare biological specimens from the institute he works for. Valeria Gordeev masterfully weaves the intimate story of a family between Berlin, Kyiv and Moscow into the grand, turbulent upheavals of our present day.

When young doctor Novana finally sees her mother’s face again, it’s on a huge billboard in an underground mall in...

When young doctor Novana finally sees her mother’s face again, it’s on a huge billboard in an underground mall in Taipei. It’s been eighteen years since she last saw her mother. Eighteen years since artist March left her daughter behind in Germany without a word of explanation. When Novana sees the billboard, everything pales into insignificance – her desire for a fresh start, which brought her to Taipei; her work at the neonatal IC unit; the nights she spends wandering the streets of this cosmopolitan city… One night, at a karaoke evening, Novana meets Sihan, a fearless, vivacious and determined activist. Novana is instantly drawn to her, and something she once thought lost appears to have found its way back into her life: the possibility of intimacy. A compelling and unequivocal novel about rebellious women, desire, broken hearts, and Taiwan’s uncertain future, which asks: what are we really willing to fight for?

Gulistan lives with her husband Çiya in a country that is hostile towards them because of their language, their way...

Gulistan lives with her husband Çiya in a country that is hostile towards them because of their language, their way of thinking, their very existence. Under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorial regime, they are persecuted as Kurds. When Çiya disappears, Gulistan sets out to find him. Nothing can break her resolve to find her beloved again, even as she is repeatedly confronted with the extent of her own powerlessness. Finally, she encounters Çiya again at a rally amidst a crowd – wearing the dictator’s uniform, as his double. Gulistan is arrested and gradually loses her sanity, yet develops all the more formidable resilience, not just when she learns of her pregnancy. How can one avoid succumbing to madness in the face of a dictatorship that distorts the truth, takes everything from its people and knows nothing but the language of violence? Karosh Taha writes about the fear in the streets, the cruelty of a paranoid system and resistance through storytelling, in a polyphonic, lyrical and dense style.

Lazi is sitting in a train to Budapest with only one aim: to find the rifle belonging to their grandfather,...

Lazi is sitting in a train to Budapest with only one aim: to find the rifle belonging to their grandfather, András, who fled to Germany during the Hungarian uprising in 1956. Waiting for Lazi in the old Hungarian village are unpredictable aunties, innumerable shots of schnaps and their distant cousin Zsófi, who teaches Lazi how to shoot. Only Mónika, their mother’s sister, understands what Lazi’s altered body means; only she suspects the real reason for Lazi’s return: to seek revenge, to find justice. In their search for the origins of the violence in their family’s history, Lazi unravels a knot of shame and silence. With a mix of humour, tenderness and anger, "King Cobra" tells a powerful tale of overcoming silence.

They are everywhere—we see them every day. Whether in Delhi, Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, or Berlin, they buzz through...

They are everywhere—we see them every day. Whether in Delhi, Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, or Berlin, they buzz through the cities: food delivery riders. Tomer Gardi weaves their stories into a global epic of ourtimes, giving a voice to those who otherwise have none. Delivering tells of racism and exploitation, of love, family, and the deep longing for connection. Filmon, who fled from Eritrea to Tel Aviv, works as a delivery rider. He wants to save enough money to join his wife and daughter in Berlin. His job is always at risk—he has no work permit and rides under a false name. His wife and daughter are learning German with Nina at an education center, while Nina herself travels to a translators’ conference in Delhi, where she falls in love with Ramón from Argentina. The narrator heads to Istanbul to squander prize money after a scam at a literary award. And in Buenos Aires, Ramón’s mother must come to terms with her son’s absence. Rarely has a German novel felt so contemporary, so international, so political—and so effortlessly light at the same time. The novel was written in collaboration with Anne Birkenhauer, who also translated the section "Mimesis" from Hebrew.

Springtime in Heidelberg! Bertram and Isolde, an aging couple from Oldenburg, are looking to treat themselves to a thoroughly delightful...

Springtime in Heidelberg! Bertram and Isolde, an aging couple from Oldenburg, are looking to treat themselves to a thoroughly delightful short getaway in the romantic Electoral Palatinate. Perhaps the trip will even clear the psychological smog hovering over their marriage. The boutique hotel is pricey but surprisingly subpar for the money; to make up for it, however, the two quickly discover a new favorite Italian restaurant. Full of charm and flair, the eatery is located on an old river boat anchored in the Neckar. Yet, as their marriage visibly falls apart over the course of the week, their nightly visits to the restaurant ship turn into an escalating disappointment, a punishment, and ultimately, sheer torture. A demonic force breaks into their mundane everyday life with devastating power, leading to an absolute catastrophe – all while the vintage schlager hit "Memories of Heidelberg" plays on an endless, maddening loop.

Lale’s childhood in West Berlin in the 1980s is unlike most others – she grows up in a left-wing male...

Lale’s childhood in West Berlin in the 1980s is unlike most others – she grows up in a left-wing male flatshare. Her drug-addicted mother loses custody of her, while her father is in prison for attempting to rob a bank in order to redistribute capital. A friend of her father’s takes Lale out of the children’s home and into his shared apartment in Neukölln. Her guardians vacillate between drug binges and political ambitions, between parties and aid projects in Nicaragua. Women are changed like clothes, and those who complain are dismissed as crazy and bourgeois. While the adults politicize, plan the revolution, and sell hashish in the living room, Lale is allowed to stay up as long as she wants, drink Fanta, eat candy, and watch TV. Lale is left to her own devices – and becomes a victim of the abusive men in her environment. As an adult, she pulls herself out of the mire by her own bootstraps, fighting her own way as a woman, artist, and mother, driven by her insatiable thirst for a better life. A childhood and youth in left-wing Berlin in the 1980s, in the shadow of the excesses of those who tried their hand at parenting and failed. A harrowing but never sentimental novel.

Lviv, 1941. Sixteen-year-old Nelka is picked up by soldiers and taken west with a large number of other women and...

Lviv, 1941. Sixteen-year-old Nelka is picked up by soldiers and taken west with a large number of other women and girls. They end up on an estate in northern Germany, where they are forced to carry out hard labour. Nelka’s father had taught her about fruit-growing early on, and even as a little girl, she had helped him to graft his apple trees. Thanks to this knowledge, she is initially able to avoid the violence of Marten, the manager of the estate. She plans the layout and maintenance of the orchard, and his apple trees make him a wealthy man after the war is over. Decades later, Nelka returns to the site of her suffering. She wants Marten to remember the very things from which she is seeking to finally free herself. In her new novel, Svenja Leiber reveals the traces left behind – on the present and in the landscape – by the violent history of the twentieth century and by the forced labour of the Nazi regime. She tells stories of women whose knowledge and bodies were exploited, and who banded together as friends to resist humiliation and brutality. "Nelka" sheds light on their fate in an insightful and sensitive way – preserving their memory.

Olympia and Cora have known each other since childhood. As teenagers, they meet again after years of no contact and...

Olympia and Cora have known each other since childhood. As teenagers, they meet again after years of no contact and soon become close friends. Four years later, Olympia is arrested for allegedly murdering the entrepreneur and gas lobbyist Eleonore Brecht in a climate-terrorist attack. In Orca, Cora recounts the time leading up to the attack. She reflects on growing up, friendship, questions of social mobility, the activist milieu the two found themselves in, as well as how dreams of community and protest turned into violence. Interwoven with this narrative are fragments from Cora’s present life, shaped by Olympia’s arrest and trial. How does she now position herself in relation to Olympia and the crime? And to what extent was Cora herself complicit in the escalation of events at the time?

A letter causes a stir in the lives of Rina, her aunt Valli and her grandmother Lydia: from one day...

A letter causes a stir in the lives of Rina, her aunt Valli and her grandmother Lydia: from one day to the next, her grandmother falls silent. Rina begins to ask questions – and, against all odds, sparks a conversation between the generations. For she suspects that she has inherited not only her family’s awkwardness and fondness for early-evening TV dramas, but also their fears and insecurities.Set between Novosibirsk in the 1960s and Fürstenfeldbruck in the recent past, Alisha Gamisch’s debut novel follows the life stories of three Russian-German women.

Sanditz, a small town on the edge of the republic: home to ageing officers, civil rights activists, local journalists, early...

Sanditz, a small town on the edge of the republic: home to ageing officers, civil rights activists, local journalists, early retirees, mousy archivists and the Wenzel family. In this warm-hearted novel told from multiple perspectives, Lukas Rietzschel intertwines the lives of a family with those of the inhabitants of Sanditz to create a panoramic view of German life stories – from the occupation of a Stasi headquarters to the grinding drudgery of working on West German construction sites. The author gifts us a novel about new beginnings and decline, success and failure, friendship and family in times of monumental change.

Franziska Denk grows up in the orbit of the Vienna Circle, and suffers as a child from a peculiar illness:...

Franziska Denk grows up in the orbit of the Vienna Circle, and suffers as a child from a peculiar illness: she immediately develops any symptom she hears or reads about. The young Franziska finds a soulmate in Otto Mandl, a brilliant mathematician, and learns to immunise herself against her affliction using words from dead languages. The pair develop an absolute obsession with language, and embark on a search together for the perfect language – a search that takes them to all imaginable limits. Schleifen is a great, an astute novel about power and the influence of language on our lives, which is also genuinely fun to read. In Elias Hirschl’s writing, the sheerly impossible constantly turns out to be true – and the rest is extremely skilfully imagined.

In the mid-1960s, young economist Georg and his friends Roland and Marlies are captivated by the promise of cybernetics, hoping...

In the mid-1960s, young economist Georg and his friends Roland and Marlies are captivated by the promise of cybernetics, hoping to use self-regulation to reform the socialist planned economy. However, the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968 shatters these intellectual dreams, leading to Roland’s dramatic escape across the Danube and leaving his friends traumatized. Georg retreats into the private sphere, building a bungalow in a weekend settlement in Brandenburg, while nearby, the artist Mona establishes an unconventional community in a dilapidated farmhouse. Narrated through alternating perspectives and a collective village chorus, the story spans from these early days to 2023, following this motley group through the early days of the GDR to the end of socialism and the disillusionment with the unkept promises of freedom.

The story of a German family across a century: Margarethe, Marianne, Monika, Miriam. They love one another, hurt one another,...

The story of a German family across a century: Margarethe, Marianne, Monika, Miriam. They love one another, hurt one another, and each struggles for independence. Raised in Dresden’s educated bourgeois milieu, they see husbands and fathers lost to the world wars. The family’s deepest rupture unfolds after their move to the West, when in the 1960s Monika, the highly intelligent yet fragile granddaughter, insists on having a Black child outside marriage, defying all social conventions. With empathy, intensity, and narrative force, Miriam Carbe makes an entire century come alive. Unwanted Daughters is an epic, intimate family novel about what we inherit – and what we pass on.

In 1985, a young pianist takes her own life in a small GDR town. Three and a half decades later,...

In 1985, a young pianist takes her own life in a small GDR town. Three and a half decades later, the writer Helene Bukowski encounters Christina’s story and approaches it with tender, meticulous care. She accompanies the child from Leipzig to Neubrandenburg, gets to know a father whose view of his daughter is clouded by his own ambitions, a mother whose photographic eye is good at seeing but who never learned to speak up, and a piano that sits immovably in their apartment. She follows Christina to Berlin, to the special school for music with its cold practice rooms and daily drill, and later, to the Moscow Conservatory. In small, piercing scenes, she shows how life is taken from Christina long before she steps out the window. Her selfhood is narrowed and overwritten by the demands of virtuosity, by her father’s projections, and by a political system hungry for victories.