German must-reads
Discover captivating German-language literature in this video compilation of the best books.
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Literary criticism on the net
Book blogs are well-established in the world of literature, but they are almost as diverse as the programmes of the German publishers. A selection of fascinating German literature blogs.
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Jurek Becker: ‘Jakob the Liar’
Hope as the elixir of life: Jurek Becker's novel about the life of Jews in a ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland is gripping and melancholic, but also full of humor. It's a story of the Holocaust, but also much, more more.
Lion Feuchtwanger: ‘The Oppermanns’
The three Oppermann brothers and their sister lead comfortable, upper-class lives in Berlin. For a long while, they choose to ignore the rising tide of anti-Semitism — until it's too late.
Günter Grass: ‘The Tin Drum’
A novel that had the impact of a bomb. World War II and the history of the century from the perspective of a small man — and a reckoning with Germany as it rebuilt itself during the 1950s.
Olga Grjasnowa: ‘All Russians Love Birch Trees’
Mascha is planning a career as a UN interpreter. But the sudden death of her boyfriend throws her completely off track. Olga Grjasnowa tells the story of a generation that knows no borders, but has no home either.
Ernst Jünger: ‘Storm of Steel’
He captured the horrors of World War I in his novel, garnering him intense criticism. Did Ernst Jünger glorify the violence, or did he mercilessly describe it?
Wolfgang Koeppen: ‘Death in Rome’
Nearly a decade after World War II, the ghosts of Germany's past return to haunt the streets of Rome. Wolfgang Koeppen's novel captures the German psyche at that time like no other.
Clemens Meyer: ‘Bricks and Mortar’
A novel set in a Leipzig red light district filled with prostitution and drugs following the fall of the communist regime, it reveals how the sex trade became a booming industry in the former East Germany.
Terezia Mora: ‘Day In Day Out’
Mora is an astute observer of the world. Spotlighting the modern-day feelings of being uprooted and adrift, she is particularly fascinated by eccentric and mysterious men who live on the edge of society.
Inka Parei: ‘The Shadow-Boxing Woman’
This work can be seen as an elegantly told detective novel, but it is also a portrait of a young woman on a search in the broken city of Berlin during the post-reunification period.
Peter Schneider: ‘The Wall Jumper’
Peter Schneider wrote "The Wall Jumper" in 1982. Looking back, it almost seems prophetic, yet it is also a historical reflection. It also remains a text about German-German sensitivities in a nearly forgotten time.
Angelika Schrobsdorff: ‘You Are Not Like Other Mothers’
A narrative biography of the writer's mother's life, 'You Are Not Like Other Mothers' tells the story of a rather unconventional woman in Weimar-era Berlin — and traces the history of the 20th century in a personal way.
W.G. Sebald: ‘Austerlitz’
A Jewish scholar crisscrosses Europe as he searches for his forgotten past, with the journey taking him to the edge of his limits. The book is considered one of the most important works of post-WWII literature.
Uwe Tellkamp: ‘The Tower’
Winner of the German Book Prize, translated into many languages: Uwe Tellkamp's monumental work revives a vanished world in Dresden's bourgeoisie during the late GDR period, offering a major novel about society.
Christa Wolf: ‘They Divided the Sky’
Was the GDR really the better Germany? Does standing up for your own political ideals pay off? Christa Wolf has her qualms — and yet she defends the moral advantages of socialist daily life.
Juli Zeh: ‘The Method’
Does a legal system become questionable if it claims infallibility? To what extent may the state — with the best of intentions — restrict individual freedom? Juli Zeh's philosophical novella asks quite topical questions.