Which Are the 20 Novels Nominated for the German Book Prize

This list is eagerly awaited every year in the German book trade: Who are the 20 nominees who can hope to win the German Book Prize and the “Novel of the Year” award?

This year, the prize is being awarded for the 20th time. The longlist includes three debut novels and 13 books by authors who have not yet been nominated for the book prize, as the jury announced in Frankfurt on Tuesday. The best-known names on the list include Nora Bossong, Michael Köhlmeier and André Kubiczek.

Mainly female authors nominated for the German Book Prize

What’s striking is that female authors dominate the 2024 longlist. 13 women and seven men are nominated for the prestigious book prize. “We were amazed, argued, laughed and selected 20 titles that are up to date, want to be read again and show the world not only as it is, but also as it could be,” said jury spokesperson Natascha Freundel.

Among the nominated novels are “autofictional texts that surprise with moments of surreal freedom; unvarnished stories of loneliness, violence and loss that are at the same time poetic self-affirmations; historical-political novels that illuminate the looming darkness of dictatorship for the present or take us to little-known corners of world history as if into halls of mirrors” and also texts “that question the narrative itself.”

This year, a total of 180 novels were submitted by 106 German-language publishers. Of the participating publishers, 78 are from Germany, 18 from Austria and 10 from Switzerland. The jury looked at a total of 197 titles.

These 20 publications (in alphabetical order) made it to the German Book Prize:

Nora Bossong: Reichskanzlerplatz (Suhrkamp Verlag, August 2024)
Zora del Buono: Because of Him (CHBeck Publishing, July 2024)
Franz Friedrich: The Passenger (S. Fischer Verlag, April 2024)
Martina Hefter: Hey good morning, how are you? (Klett-Cotta, July 2024)
Timon Karl Kaleyta: Healing (Piper Verlag, February 2024)
Maren Kames: Rabbit Prose (Suhrkamp Verlag, March 2024)
Michael Köhlmeier: The Philosopher ’s Ship (Hanser, January 2024)
Daniela Krien: My Third Life (Diogenes Verlag, August 2024)
André Kubiczek: Nostalgia (Rowohlt Berlin Verlag, May 2024)

Ulla Lenze: Well-being (Klett-Cotta, August 2024)
Clemens Meyer: The Projectors (S. Fischer Verlag, August 2024)
Max Oravin: Toni & Toni (Droschl literary publisher, August 2024)
Ronya Othmann: Seventy-Four (Rowohlt Verlag, March 2024)
Mithu Sanyal: Antichrist (Hanser, September 2024)
Stefanie Sargnagel: Iowa (Rowohlt Hundert Augen, December 2023)
Dana von Suffrin: Again from the beginning (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, March 2024)
Markus Thielemann: Thunder rolls from the north (Verlag CHBeck, July 2024)
Ruth-Maria Thomas: The most beautiful version (Rowohlt Hundert Augen, July 2024)
Doris Wirth: Find me (Geparden Verlag, March 2024)
Iris Wolff: Clearings (Klett-Cotta, January 2024)

So much Hesse is in the list

Two of the nominated novels were published by the Frankfurt-based S. Fischer Verlag: “The Passenger” by Franz Friedrich and “The Projectors” by Clemens Meyer. Iris Wolff studied German language and literature, religious studies, and graphic design and painting at the Philipps University in Marburg. And in Wiesbaden, people were already impressed by Martina Hefter this year: she was awarded the state capital’s literary prize.

Pre-selection by jury

In February, the German Book Prize Academy appointed seven literary experts to the jury. The members are elected anew every year, and multiple membership is possible. This year, the following people decided:

Gerrit Bartels (newspaper “Tagesspiegel”)
Magdalena Birkmann (freelance literary agent and bookseller)
Natascha Freundel (rbb)
Torsten Hoffmann (University of Stuttgart)
Marianna Lieder (freelance critic)
Regina Moths (Munich bookstore Literatur Moths)
Klaus Nüchtern (Austrian weekly newspaper “Falter”).

This is how it continues

The jury selects the winning title in a multi-stage selection process. Six titles from the longlist become the shortlist , which is published on September 17th. The six authors will not find out who has won the German Book Prize until the evening of the awards ceremony, on October 14th. The winner will receive 25,000 euros, and the other five finalists will each receive 2,500 euros.

The award ceremony will take place in the Kaisersaal in Frankfurt’s Römer. The event will be broadcast live on the German Book Prize website . Since 2005, the German Book Prize has been awarded to the novel of the year. Tonio Schachinger won the 2023 German Book Prize for his novel “Echtzeitalter” .

Meet nominees on a blind date

In August and September, there will be readings throughout Germany that will give people the opportunity to get to know the authors of the long-listed books. The special thing about the blind dates is that the audience only finds out which of the nominated authors is the guest on the evening itself. In Hesse, this time, the reading will take place in the towers of the Deutsche Bank: on August 26th at 7 p.m.

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(Featured image by wytrazek via Pixabay)

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