Books that Travel 2024
Great stories travel and translate well. Promoting literary translation fosters cultural exchange and enriches the global literary landscape. There are several tools to help books travel across linguistic borders. These include recognition and awards for translators and translated fiction and non-fiction books; educational initiatives that bring literary translation to schools and universities; translation grants and fellowships; book festivals, books fairs – especially those with Guest of Honour programmes - and literary events; collaborations between publishers in different countries; government-funded translation programmes; translators residencies; translators associations and initiatives; book clubs that focus on translated literature. Perhaps you can think of a few more.
These tools can all be harnessed to help create a more inclusive and diverse literary landscape that reflects the richness of global storytelling. Promoting literary translation is a celebration of cultural diversity and an investment in fostering understanding and empathy across borders. In this spirit, we are happy to present below a selection of books translated into English from German that have recently been published. Let’s raise a glass to the translators, publishers, advocates, librarians, and all those who work in the promotion of translated literature, mining for German-language gems they can bring to a broader audience through translation into English. Prost!
Single title
At No Time
The vignettes in At No Time each begin in familiar situations, often set in Vienna or other Austrian cities, but...
The vignettes in At No Time each begin in familiar situations, often set in Vienna or other Austrian cities, but immediately diverge into supernatural or fantastical situations or strange encounters. The author was a member of the Gruppe 47 writers’ group which sought to renew German-language literature after World War II.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-80309-144-0
- Author:
- Ilse Aichinger
- Pages:
- 144
Shining Sheep: Poems
In Ulrike Almut Sandig’s latest volume of poetry, it is only a leap from the creation of the world to...
In Ulrike Almut Sandig’s latest volume of poetry, it is only a leap from the creation of the world to the symphony of the Berlin metropolis.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Poetry
- ISBN:
- 978-1-80309-252-2
- Author:
- Ulrike Almut Sandig
- Pages:
- 132
Sisters in Arms
Shida Bazyar tells a powerful story about the tensions and monstrosities that determine the everyday lives of three young women...
Shida Bazyar tells a powerful story about the tensions and monstrosities that determine the everyday lives of three young women - Hani, Kasih and Saya – who have been friends since they were young.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-915590-20-6
- Author:
- Shida Bazyar
- Pages:
- 288
Tasting Sunlight
An extraordinary bond develops between an angry teenage runaway and a middle-aged woman running a large farm on her own,...
An extraordinary bond develops between an angry teenage runaway and a middle-aged woman running a large farm on her own, as they work the land and slowly heal.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-914585-14-2
- Author:
- Ewald Arenz
- Pages:
- 229
Holly's Secret - Book 3 of The Woodwalkers
The third book in The Woodwalkers, a shapeshifting adventure series....
The third book in The Woodwalkers, a shapeshifting adventure series.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Children’s/young adult book
- ISBN:
- 978-1-64690-022-0
- Author:
- Katja Brandis
- Pages:
- 250
The Visionaries
Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil and Ayn Rand: Wolfram Eilenberger describes the dramatic lives of the most influential...
Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil and Ayn Rand: Wolfram Eilenberger describes the dramatic lives of the most influential female philosophers of the 20th century with great narrative skill. Amidst the turmoil of the Second World War, they lay the foundations for a truly free, emancipated society as refugees and resistance fighters, the ostracised and the enlightened.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Non-fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-0-241-53737-4
- Author:
- Wolfram Eilenberger
- Pages:
- 400
Kairos
Berlin. 11 July 1986. They meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and married....
Berlin. 11 July 1986. They meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and married. Theirs is an intense and sudden attraction, fuelled by a shared passion for music and art, and heightened by the secrecy they must maintain. Against the backdrop of the declining GDR and the upheaval after 1989, award-winning author Jenny Erpenbeck tells of the abysses of happiness in her unmistakable language.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-78378-612-1
- Author:
- Jenny Erpenbeck
- Pages:
- 304
The Inmate
Bestselling author Sebastian Fitzek sends you on an ingeniously disturbing journey with his brand new psychological thriller. A missing child....
Bestselling author Sebastian Fitzek sends you on an ingeniously disturbing journey with his brand new psychological thriller. A missing child. A desperate father. A terrible secret.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-80454-234-7
- Author:
- Sebastian Fitzek
- Pages:
- 384
In The Long Run We’re All Dead
In the Long Run We’re All Dead tells us about the lives of great economists and how they developed the theories...
In the Long Run We’re All Dead tells us about the lives of great economists and how they developed the theories for which they became famous, explaining these often-complex ideas – of Utilitarianism, of Social Costs, and the Endowment Effect, to name just a few – in a style that is engaging, irreverent, and comic.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Non-fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-3-946334-52-1
- Author:
- Björn Frank
- Pages:
- 152
Dracula Park
Winner of the Swiss Book Prize and nominated for the German Book Prize, this book set in post-Communist Romania, on...
Winner of the Swiss Book Prize and nominated for the German Book Prize, this book set in post-Communist Romania, on the border with Transylvania, is an atmospheric tale of revenge and extremism. When a mutilated corpse is discovered in the family crypt of Prince Vlad the Impaler, the mayor plans a vampire-themed amusement park. But this will be the kiss of death for the place and its people.
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-914518-21-8
- Author:
- Dana Grigorcea
- Pages:
- 206
Love in a Time of Hate
Love in a Time of interweaves some of the greatest love stories of the 1930s with the darkening backdrop of...
Love in a Time of interweaves some of the greatest love stories of the 1930s with the darkening backdrop of fascism in Europe, in a journey into the past that brings history and its actors to vivid life.
Contact for foreign rights: foreignrights@fischerverlage.de
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Non-fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-80081-116-4
- Author:
- Florian Illies
- Pages:
- 336
An Ordinary Youth
Walter Kempowski portrays the drama of the exodus from East Prussia, telling the story of a family in the final...
Walter Kempowski portrays the drama of the exodus from East Prussia, telling the story of a family in the final winter of the war. The book, rich in perspective, is a chronicle of loss – the loss of homeland, tradition, culture and a sense of civilisation.
Contact for foreign rights: gesche.wendebourg@penguinrandomhouse.de
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-78378-884-2
- Author:
- Walter Kempowski
- Pages:
- 480
The Book of Commentary / Unquiet Garden of the Soul
Published on the occasion of his 90th birthday, this is perhaps Alexander Kluge's most personal book. The book confronts the...
Published on the occasion of his 90th birthday, this is perhaps Alexander Kluge's most personal book. The book confronts the reader with questions of existential meaning, questions rendered all the more potent by the backdrop of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Contact Foreign Rights: rights@suhrkamp.de
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-80309-260-7
- Author:
- Alexander Kluge
- Pages:
- 292
Deep Dark Blue
An atmospheric, contemporary police procedural set on Lake Zurich, introducing detective Rosa Zambrano....
An atmospheric, contemporary police procedural set on Lake Zurich, introducing detective Rosa Zambrano.
Contact for foreign rights: bau@diogenes.ch
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-78227-957-0
- Author:
- Seraina Kobler
- Pages:
- 256
Overstaying
An isolated woman living in a small town decides to take in a mysterious stranger, known only as ‘the visitor’....
An isolated woman living in a small town decides to take in a mysterious stranger, known only as ‘the visitor’. Overstaying is a debut novel that poses questions about the known and the unknown, about origin and home, about assimilation and integration, about privacy and hospitality.
Contact for foreign rights: rights@suhrkamp.de
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-80533-016-5
- Author:
- Ariane Koch
- Pages:
- 208
No Storm, Just Weather
In 1981 a woman came to West Berlin as an eighteen-year-old to study medicine and met a man twice her...
In 1981 a woman came to West Berlin as an eighteen-year-old to study medicine and met a man twice her age. At the turn of the millennium and age of thirty-six, she meets another man. He is thirty-six too. Why are the men in her life always thirty-six? Is she still the person she remembers? This book is an engaging exploration of romance.
Contact Foreign Rights: judith.habermas@dumont.de
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-80309-148-8
- Author:
- Judith Kuckart
- Pages:
- 200
The Freedom of Emma Herwegh
A gripping novel based on the life of the 19th-century revolutionary Emma Herwegh....
A gripping novel based on the life of the 19th-century revolutionary Emma Herwegh.
Contact Foreign Rights: Friederike.Barakat@hanser.de
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-922268-71-6
- Author:
- Dirk Kurbjuweit
- Pages:
- 368
Animals – Eight Studies for Experts
A collection of unique, profound, and witty stories that relate animals’ peculiarities to human attitudes....
A collection of unique, profound, and witty stories that relate animals’ peculiarities to human attitudes.
Contact Foreign Rights: ibrandt@kiwi-verlag.de
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-80309-262-1
- Author:
- Eval Menasse
- Pages:
- 312
as mornings and mossgreen I. Step to the window
Austrian poet Friederike Mayröcker is widely considered one of the most important European poets of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries....
Austrian poet Friederike Mayröcker is widely considered one of the most important European poets of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Contact Foreing Rights: rights@suhrkamp.de
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Poetry
- ISBN:
- 978-1-80309-142-6
- Author:
- Friederike Mayröcker
- Pages:
- 200
While We Were Dreaming
Longlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize. Rico, Mark, Paul and Daniel were 13 when the Berlin Wall fell in...
Longlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize. Rico, Mark, Paul and Daniel were 13 when the Berlin Wall fell in autumn 1989. Growing up in Leipzig at the time of reunification, they dream of a better life somewhere beyond the brewery quarter.
Contact for foreign rights: foreignrights@fischerverlage.de
- Publisher:
- Topic:
- Fiction
- ISBN:
- 978-1-80427-028-8
- Author:
- Clemens Meyer
- Pages:
- 528
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