50 Books That Travel - Frankfurter Buchmesse
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50 Books That Travel
This selection of German titles is show-cased at book fairs all
over the world on the German collective stands organized by the
Frankfurter Buchmesse in 2018.
Children‘s & YA
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Armstrong: Mr. Happy & Miss Grimm You Can‘t See the Elephants
The Adventurous Journey of Herr Glück und Frau Unglück Elefanten sieht man nicht
a Mouse to the Moon
ANTONIE SCHNEIDER, German SUSAN KRELLER, German
Lindbergh:
Translated by Grace Maccarone Translated by Elizabeth Gaffney
Die abenteuerliche Geschich-
Thienemann, 978-3522436793 Carlsen, 978-3551582461
te einer fliegenden Maus
Holiday House (US), 978-0823431984, G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young
TORBEN KUHLMANN, German 32 pages, 2015 Readers (US), 978-0399172090,
Translated by David Henry Wilson 192 pages, 2015
Mr. Happy has just moved in next
NordSüd, 978-3314102103
door, and Miss Grimm is not plea- When thirteen-year-old Mascha
North South Books (US),
sed. Mr. Happy greets the sun each is sent to her grandparents’ for
978-0735842625, 128 pages, 2016
day, works tirelessly in his specta- the summer, she spends her days
A long time ago a mouse learned to fly... cular garden, and even whistles to bored and lonely at a nearby
and crossed the Atlantic. But what hap- the birds. So much for peace and playground. There she meets the
pened next? Torben Kuhlmann‘s stunning quiet! From her gloomy and bar- painfully shy siblings Julia and Max.
book transports readers to the moon ren side of the fence, Miss Grimm Mascha begins to suspect that
and beyond, to a world where dreams knows one thing for certain: she they are being physically abused
are determined only by the size of your wants nothing to do with Mr. Hap- by their father. She tells her grand-
imagination and the biggest innovators py. But Mr. Happy knows something parents and the authorities, but
are the smallest of all. The book ends too: given kindness and patience, no one believes her. Mascha can’t
with a brief non-fiction history of human anything can grow – even a friend- let the abuse go on, so she takes
space travel – from Galileo’s obser- ship with lonely Miss Grimm. matters into her own hands.
vations concerning the nature of the This beautifully written novel is a
universe to man‘s first steps on the moon. haunting and timely tale.
1Children‘s & YA
____________________________
Where Is Grandma?
Wo ist Oma?
PETER SCHÖSSOW, German
Translated by Sally-Ann Spencer
Carl Hanser Verlag, 978-3446249523
Gecko Press (US), 978-1776571543,
64 pages, 2017
Henry visits his grandmother in the
hospital and decides to find her
room alone. The result is an
adventure, on which Henry finds
friends, humour, lots of information
and, at last, Grandma.
Author Peter Schössow has won
many awards, including the German
Youth Literature Prize.
Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Displaced Bad Words Against the World
Morgenland Schlechte Wörter Gegen die Welt
STEPHAN ABARBANELL, German ILSE AICHINGER, Austrian JAN BRANDT, German
Translated by Lucy Renner Jones Translated by Uljana Wolf & Christian Translated by Katy Derbyshire
Karl Blessing Verlag, 978-3896675170 Hawkey DuMont, 978-3832196288
John Murray (UK), HarperCollins (US), S. Fischer Verlag, 978-3100005076 Seagull Books (UK), 978-0857423375,
978-1473635548, 336 pages, 2017 Seagull Books (UK), 978-0857424761, 968 pages, 2016
224 pages, 2016
Echoing the fiction of Joseph
An unforgettable debut, ‘Against
Kanon, Alan Furst, and Daniel Silva, Ilse Aichinger (1921–2016) was one
the World’ is an epic account of
this deeply intelligent literary thriller of the most important writers of
growing up an outsider. Set in the
– set in a world still reeling from post-war Austrian and German-
East Frisia region of Germany in the
World War II – explores how the speaking literature. This volume
mid-1970s, this is the story of Daniel
actions of a few can change the presents the whole of the original
Kuper, the nominal heir to a drug-
course of history. British-occupied ‘Bad Words’ in English for the first
store dynasty, and his struggle
Palestine, 1946: Elderly writer Elias time, along with a selection of
to free himself from the petty
Lind isn’t convinced by reports that Aichinger’s other short stories of
suspicions and violence of small-
his scientist brother, Raphael, died the period; together, they
town life. The more he tries to prove
in a concentration camp. demonstrate her courageous effort
his innocence, the fiercer the
Too frail to search for Raphael to create and deploy a language
accusations against him, until his
himself, Elias persuades a contact unmarred by misleading
only option is open war against the
in the Jewish resistance to send certainties, preconceived rules, or
village and its inhabitants.
someone in his place. implicit ideologies.
2Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Baba Dunja‘s Last Love Go, Went, Gone The Dark Ship
Baba Dunjas letzte Liebe Gehen, ging, gegangen Das dunkle Schiff
ALINA BRONSKY, German JENNY ERPENBECK, German SHERKO FATAH, German
Translated by Tim Mohr Translated by Susan Bernofsky Translated by Martin Chalmers
Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Albrecht Knaus Verlag, 978-3813503708 Jung und Jung, 978-3902497369
978-3462048025 Granta (UK), New Directions (US), Seagull Books (UK), 978-0857420367,
Europa Editions (US), 978-1609453336 978-0811225946, 320 pages, 2017 420 pages, 2015
192 pages, 2016
Retired university professor, Richard, In Sherko Fatah’s ‘The Dark Ship’,
Government warnings about radiation discovers a new community in we experience an extraordinary
levels in her hometown (a stone’s Berlin that he never knew existed: new voice in fiction, which tells the
throw from Chernobyl) be damned! a tent city, established by African story of the kind of trauma and
Baba Dunja is going home. And asylum seekers. Hesitantly, getting striving that leads a man from
she’s taking a motley bunch of her to know the new arrivals, Richard religious extremism to a vain hope
former neighbours with her. With finds his life changing as he for redemption. At once a thriller
strangely misshapen forest fruits begins to question his own sense and a political narrative, ‘The Dark
to spare and the town largely to of belonging. ‘Go, Went, Gone’ is Ship’ tracks the Kurdish experience
themselves, they have pretty much at once a passionate contribution from the war-torn mountains of
everything they need and they to the debate on race, privilege northern Iraq to the bureaucracies
plan to start anew. Life is beautiful. and nationality and a beautifully and mosques of Berlin in a gripping
That is until one day a stranger written examination of an ageing journey across land and water,
turns up in the village and once man‘s quest to find meaning in his through ideology and faith.
again the little idyllic settlement life.
faces annihilation.
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
The Nightwalker All That Ends Angel of Oblivion
Der Nachtwandler Vonne Endlichkait Engel des Vergessens
SEBASTIAN FITZEK, German GÜNTER GRASS, German MAJA HADERLAP, Austrian
Translated by Jamie Lee Searle Translated by Breon Mitchell Translated by Tess Lewis
Knaur TB, 978-3426503744 Steidl Verlag, 978-3958290426 Wallstein Verlag, 978-3835309531
Sphere (UK), Pegasus Crime (US), Harvill Secker (UK), Houghton Mifflin Archipelago Books (US),
978-0751556834, 256 pages, 2017 Harcourt (US), 978-0544785380, 978-0914671466, 250 pages, 2016
176 pages, 2016
As a young man, Leon Nader ‘Angel of Oblivion’ is based on the
suffered from insomnia. As a sleep- The last work of Nobel Prize-winning experiences of Maja Haderlap’s
walker, he turned to violence during writer Günter Grass, a witty and family and the Slovenian-speaking
his nocturnal excursions and had elegiac series of meditations on minority in southern Austria, many of
psychiatric treatment for his condi- writing, growing old, and living in the whom fought as partisans against
tion. One day Leon‘s wife disappears world. Only an aging artist who has the Nazis during the Second World
from their apartment under mys- once more cheated death can set War. Engaging with themes of
terious circumstances. Desperate to work with such wisdom, defiance, tolerance and integration of minority
to find out the truth, Leon attaches and wit. A wealth of touching stories communities, the burden of history,
a motion-activated camera to his is condensed into artful miniatures the effects of conflicts on survivors
forehead at night. When he looks at in a striking interplay of poetry, lyric and their children, and language’s
the video the next morning he makes prose, and drawings. This is a mo- role in shaping identity, Haderlap’s
a discovery that bursts the borders ving farewell gift: a sensual, melan- novel strikes at problems of
of his imagination. choly summation of a life fully lived. paramount importance to our world
today.
3Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
The Moravian Night Superabundance The Sleep of the Righteous
Die morawische Nacht Der beruhigende Klang Der Schlaf der Gerechten
von explodierendem Kerosin
PETER HANDKE, Austrian WOLFGANG HILBIG, German
Translated by Krishna Winston HEINZ HELLE, German Translated by Isabel Fargo Cole
Suhrkamp, 978-3518461082 Translated by Kári Driscoll S. Fischer Verlag, 978-3100336248
Farrar, Straus & Giroux (US), Suhrkamp, 978-3518423981 Two Lines Press (US), 978-1931883474,
978-0374212551, 368 pages, 2016 Serpent‘s Tail (UK), 978-1781253953, 176 pages, 2015
176 pages, 2016
Mysteriously summoned to a house- Doppelgänger, a murderer’s guilt,
boat on the Morava River, a few Alone in New York, separated pulp noir, fanatical police, and im-
friends, associates, and collabora- from his girlfriend by the Atlantic possible romances – these are the
tors of an old writer listen as he tells Ocean, the nameless narrator of pieces from which author Wolfgang
a story that will last until dawn: the Heinz Helle‘s electric debut novel is Hilbig builds a divided nation bat-
tale of the once well-known writer’s sinking slowly into crisis. He loves his tling its demons. Delving deep into
recent odyssey across Europe. girlfriend but finds himself attracted to the psyches of both East and West
Powerfully alive, honest, and at every woman he sees. He is cursed Germany, ‘The Sleep of the Right-
times deliciously satirical, with total self-awareness yet can‘t eous’ reveals a powerful, apoca-
‘The Moravian Night’ explores the seem to control his actions. lyptic, utterly personal account
mind and memory of an aging ‘Superabundance’ asks: how do of the century-defining nation’s
writer, tracking the anxieties, angers, we live when our relationships, our post-war struggles. Hilbig creates
fears, and pleasures of a life actions and even our own minds an original, visionary statement on
inseparable from the recent history are filled with such heart-breaking the ravages that history can wreak
of Central Europe. mystery? on the human mind.
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
You Should Have Left: All for Nothing Yiza
A Novel Alles umsonst Das Mädchen mit dem
Du hättest gehen sollen Fingerhut
WALTER KEMPOWSKI, German
DANIEL KEHLMANN, German/Austrian Translated by Anthea Bell MICHAEL KÖHLMEIER, Austrian
Translated by Ross Benjamin Knaus, 978-3813502640 Translated by Ruth Martin
Rowohlt, 978-3498035730 Granta Books & Portobello Books (UK), Carl Hanser Verlag, 978-3446250550
Pantheon Books (US), 978-1786484048, 978-1847087201, 352 pages, 2015 Haus Publishing (UK), 978-1910376751,
128 pages, 2017 120 pages, 2017
In January 1945, the German army
An eerie and supernatural tale of is retreating from the Russian Part dark fairy tale, part mystery,
a writer’s emotional collapse, from advance. Germans are fleeing Yiza is the story of three homeless
the internationally best-selling the occupied territories in their street children on the run.
author of ‘Measuring the World’ thousands. But in a rural East One evening, not long after her
and ‘F’. Eager to finish a screenplay Prussian manor house, the wealthy arrival in Germany, six-year-old
he has been working on, the narrator von Globig family seals itself off Yiza is abandoned at the market
of Daniel Kehlmann’s spellbinding from the world. Profoundly evocative where she spends her days.
new novel rents a house in the of the period, sympathetic and At a shelter for migrant children she
German mountains with his wife yet painfully honest about the meets two boys and together they
and four-year-old daughter – a motivations of its characters, run away. Trekking through snowy
house that thwarts the expectations ‘All for Nothing’ is a devastating forests and housing settlements,
of the narrator’s recollection and portrait of the complicities and they evade police custody, sub-
seems to defy the very laws of denials of the German people as sisting on the margins of society.
physics. the Third Reich comes to an end. ‘Yiza’ is a pertinent and timely tale
of displacement and suffering.
4Fiction
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Imperium. Collision Babylon Berlin
A Fiction of the South Seas Havarie Der nasse Fisch
Imperium
MERLE KRÖGER, German VOLKER KUTSCHER, German
CHRISTIAN KRACHT, Swiss Translated by Niall Sellar Translated by Niall Sellar
Translated by Daniel Bowles Argument Verlag, 978-3867542241 Kiepenheuer & Witsch,
Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 978-3462041316 Rachel Hildebrandt and Alexandra Roesch 978-3462039146
Farrar Straus & Giroux (US), Unnamed Press (US), 978-1944700195 Sandstone Press (UK),
978-0374175245, 192 pages, 2015 240 pages, 2017 978-1910124970, 544 pages, 2016
In 1902, a radical vegetarian and Miami-based The Spirit of Europe, Berlin, 1929. Detective Inspector Rath
nudist from Nuremberg named the third largest cruise liner in the was a successful career officer in
August Engelhardt set sail for what world, ploughs through the the Cologne Homicide Division
was then called the Bismarck Mediterranean every summer, before a shooting incident in which
Archipelago. His destination: offering its passengers a temporary he inadvertently killed a man.
the island of Kabakon. His goal: escape from their everyday lives. He is transferred to the Vice Squad
to establish a colony based on But life on board the cruise liner in Berlin, a job he detests. There is
worship of the sun and coconuts. is not immune to the chaos of the seething unrest in the city and the
His malnourished body was found European migration crisis. Vice Squad is ordered to ruthlessly
on the beach on Kabakon in 1919. ‘Collision’ is a maritime thriller by enforce the ban on May Day
Christian Kracht uses the outlan- one of Germany’s most celebrated demonstrations. The result is
dish details of Engelhardt’s life to crime writers, building suspense catastrophic with many dead and
craft a fable about the allure of through the eyes of a diverse array injured, and a state of emergency is
extremism and its fundamental of memorable characters. declared in the Communist strong-
foolishness. holds of the city.
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Melnitz Bricks and Mortar The Fox Was Ever the Hunter
Melnitz Im Stein Der Fuchs war damals
schon der Jäger
CHARLES LEWINSKY, Swiss CLEMENS MEYER, German
Translated by Shaun Whiteside Translated by Katy Derbyshire HERTA MÜLLER, German
dtv, 978-3423135924 S. Fischer Verlag, 978-3100486028 Translated by Philip Boehm
Atlantic Books (UK), 978-1848877665, Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK), Rowohlt, 978-3499135033
640 pages, 2015 978-1910695197, 672 pages, 2016 Metropolitan Books (US),
978-0805093025, 256 pages, 2016
1871. Cattle-dealer Solomon Meijer ‘Bricks and Mortar’ is the story of
has made a reputation for himself the sex trade in a big city in the Romania – the last months of the
as one of the few honest Jews former GDR, from just before 1989 Ceaușescu regime. Adina is a young
in Endingen, a rare Swiss town in to the present day, charting the schoolteacher and returns home one
which Jews are allowed to reside. development of the industry from day to discover that her fox-fur rug
But his whole life is set to change absolute prohibition to full legality has had its tail cut off.
when he answers a knock at the in the twenty years following the The mutilated fur is a taunting sign
door in the middle of the night. reunification of Germany. that she is being watched by the
‘Melnitz’ is the saga of the Swiss- The focus is on the rise and fall of secret police – the fox was ever
Jewish Meijer family, spanning five one man from football hooligan to the hunter. Images of photographic
generations from the Franco-Prussian large-scale landlord and service- precision combine into a kaleido-
War to World War II. provider for prostitutes. scope of terror as Adina and her
It is a homage to Yiddish culture But many other diverse voices have friends struggle to keep mind and
and a celebration of the enduring parts to play in this fascinating, body intact in a world pervaded by
spirit of biting Jewish humour. multi-faceted tale. complicity and permeated by fear.
5Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
The Ice Queen To Die in Spring Sophia Or the Beginning of
Tiefe Wunden Im Frühling sterben All Tales
Sophia oder Der Anfang
NELE NEUHAUS, German RALF ROTHMANN, German
aller Geschichten
Translated by Stephen T. Murray Translated by Shaun Whiteside
List Taschenbuch, 978-3548609027 Suhrkamp, 978-3518424759 RAFIK SCHAMI, German
Minotaur (US), 978-1447227427, Picador (UK), FSG (US), 978-1509812851, Translated by
448 pages, 2015 208 pages, 2017 Monique Arav and John Hannon
Carl Hanser Verlag, 978-3446249417
The body of 92-year-old Jossi Distant, silent, often drunk, Walter
Interlink Publishing (US), 978-1566560313,
Goldberg, Holocaust survivor and Urban is a difficult man to have as
480 pages, 2017
American citizen, is found shot to a father. But his son – the narrator
death execution style in his house of this slim, harrowing novel – is Set during the tumultuous years
near Frankfurt. A five-digit number curious about Walter’s experiences leading up to the Arab Spring,
is scrawled in blood at the murder during World War II, and so makes ‘Sophia’ is an intricately plotted,
scene. The autopsy reveals an old him a present of a blank notebook lyrical novel about the power of love
and unsuccessfully covered tattoo in which to write down his memo- to overcome all barriers of time and
on the corpse‘s arm – a blood type ries. Walter dies, however, leaving circumstance. As a young girl, Sophia
marker once used by Hitler‘s SS. nothing but the barest skeleton of falls deeply in love with Karim, but
Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver Bodenstein a story on those pages, leading his weds a rich goldsmith instead.
are faced with a riddle. Was the son to fill in the gaps himself, rightly A few years later, Karim is accused of
old man not Jewish after all? or wrongly, with what he can piece an assassination he did not commit
Who was he, really? together of his father’s early life. and Sophia saves his life. He promises
that she will forever have his loyalty,
no matter the risk to himself.
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
The Language of Birds Goldfish Memory A Whole Life
Die Sprache der Vögel Goldfischgedächtnis: Ein ganzes Leben
Erzählungen
NORBERT SCHEUER, German ROBERT SEETHALER, Austrian
Translated by Stephen Brown MONIQUE SCHWITTER, Swiss Translated by Charlotte Collins
C. H. Beck, 978-3406677458 Translated by Eluned Gramich Hanser Berlin, 978-3446246454
Haus Publishing (UK), Droschl, 978-3854207894 Picador (UK), Farrar, Straus & Giroux (US),
University of Chicago Press (US), Parthian Books (UK), 978-1910409633, 978-1447283904, 160 pages, 2016
978-1910376638, 160 pages, 2017 250 pages, 2015
Andreas Egger knows every path
It is 2003, and Paul Arimond is ser- What does it mean to have a
and peak of his mountain valley,
ving as a paramedic in Afghanistan. connection with someone?
the source of his sustenance, his
The twenty-four-year-old has Everyday you see tens and hundreds
livelihood – his home. Set in the
no illusions of becoming a hero. of faces and overhear countless
mid-twentieth century and told
Rather, he has chosen the army to conversations. Everyday you pass
with beauty and tenderness,
escape the tragedies of his past people by. But what makes one
Robert Seethaler‘s ‘A Whole Life’ is
and his own feelings of guilt. person a stranger, and another a
a story of man‘s relationship with
As a result, he finds himself in the friend, an accomplice, even a lover?
an ancient landscape, of the value
same land, now war-torn, where an ‘Goldfish Memory’ is the first trans-
of solitude, of the arrival of the
ancestor of his, Ambrosius Arimond, lation of Monique Schwitter’s form-
modern world, and above all, of
a late eighteenth-century traveller breaking work.
the moments, great and small, that
and ornithologist, once explored With a contemporary style that’s
make us who we are.
and developed the theory of a cool, quick and funny, this collection
universal language of birds. is a refreshing new voice, not to be
missed.
6Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Kruso The Back of Beyond Before the Feast
Kruso Weit über das Land Vor dem Fest
LUTZ SEILER, German PETER STAMM, Swiss SAŠA STANIŠIC, German
Translated by Tess Lewis Translated by Michael Hofmann Translated by Anthea Bell
Suhrkamp, 978-3518466308 S. Fischer Verlag, 978-3100022271 Luchterhand Literaturverlag,
Scribe (UK), Scribe (US), 978-1911344001, Other Press (US), 978-1783783298, 978-3630872438
480 pages, 2017 160 pages, 2017 Pushkin Press (UK), 978-1941040393,
316 pages, 2015
‘Kruso’ is the lyrical, bestselling 2014 Man Booker International Prize
German Book Prize winner. It is 1989, finalist Peter Stamm explores what It is the evening before the feast in
and a young literature student it means to be in the middle of the village of Fürstenfelde (popula-
named Ed, fleeing unspeakable nowhere, in mind and in body. tion: declining), but not everyone is
tragedy, travels to the Baltic island Happily married with two children, asleep. The local artist, the village
of Hiddensee. Long shrouded in Thomas and Astrid enjoy a glass of archivist and a retired lieutenant-
myth, the island is a notorious wine in their garden on a night like colonel are all wakeful.
destination for hippies, idealists, any other. Astrid is called back to And eighteen-year-old Anna,
and those at odds with the East the house and, after a brief moment namesake of the feast, prepares to
German state. There he is drawn of hesitation, Thomas opens the take her place in tomorrow’s festival
towards the charismatic Kruso, gate and walks out. While Thomas of drinking and dancing, eating
unofficial leader of the island’s begins a trek across the country- and burning. On this night of mis-
seasonal workers. Everyone dances side, Astrid is left wondering where deeds and mischief, the fantastic,
to Kruso’s tune – but to what end, he’s gone, when he’ll come back, the menacing, and the inexplicable
and at what cost? whether he’s still alive. collide in the most surprising ways.
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Montecristo The Memoirs of a Polar Bear Kingdom of Twilight
Montecristo Etüden im Schnee Königreich der Dämmerung
MARTIN SUTER, Swiss YOKO TAWADA, German STEVEN UHLY, German
Translated by Jamie Bulloch Translated by Susan Bernofsky Translated by Jamie Bulloch
Diogenes, 978-3257069204 Konkursbuch, 978-3887697372 Secession Verlag, 978-3905951417
No Exit Press (UK), 978-1843448303, New Directions (US), 978-0811225786, MacLehose Press (UK), 978-0857054982,
320 pages, 2016 288 pages, 2016 464 pages, 2016
Video journalist Jonas Brand is on A bear, born and raised in captivity, One night in autumn 1944, in a small
a rail journey from Zurich to Basel is devastated by the loss of his town in occupied Poland, an SS officer
when stock trader Paolo Contini keep-er; another finds herself is shot dead by a young Polish Jew,
appears to throw himself from the performing in the circus; a third sits Margarita Ejzenstain. In retaliation,
train to his death. Brand sets his down one day and pens a memoir his commander orders the execution
footage of the aftermath of the which becomes an international of thirty-seven Poles — one for
incident aside to investigate a sensation, and causes her to flee every year of the dead man‘s life.
strange coincidence: her home. Through the stories of First hidden by a German couple,
two hundred-Swiss-franc bankno- these three bears, Tawada reflects Margarita must then flee the brutal
tes bearing the same serial number on our own humanity, the ways in advance of the Soviet army with her
have come into his possession. which we belong to one another new-born baby. So begins a thrilling
Sensing an opportunity to graduate and the ways in which we are panorama of intermingled destinies
from celebrity journalism to serious formed. Delicate and surreal, these and events that reverberate from
investigation, he has the banknotes memoirs take the reader into that single act of defiance.
analysed, with fatally contradictory foreign bodies and foreign climes.
results.
7Fiction
____________________________
A Gushing Fountain
Ein springender Brunnen
MARTIN WALSER, German
Translated by David Dollenmayer
Suhrkamp, 978-3518396001
Arcade (US), 978-1628724240,
368 pages, 2015
This masterful novel by one of the
foremost figures of post-war Ger-
man literature is an indelible por-
trait of Nazism slowly overtaking a
small town. Semi-autobiographical,
it is also a remarkably vivid account
of a childhood fraught with troubles,
yet full of remembered love.
In a provincial town on Lake Con-
stance, Johann basks in the affection
of the colourful staff and regulars at
the station restaurant, until war be-
gins the body count that will include
his beloved older brother.
Non-Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
The Correspondance Birdmania — A Remarkable Gut: The Inside Story of
of Hannah Arendt and Passion for Birds Our Body‘s Most
Gershom Scholem Ornithomania: Geschichte Underrated Organ
Der Briefwechsel: Hannah einer besonderen Darm mit Charme
Arendt / Gershom Scholem Leidenschaft
GIULIA ENDERS, German
HANNAH ARENDT, German BERND BRUNNER, German Translated by David Shaw
Translated by Anthony David Translated by Jane Billinghurst Ullstein, 978-3550081842
Jüdischer Verlag bei Suhrkamp, Galiani Berlin, 978-3869711171, Greystone Scribe Publications (UK), Greystone Books
978-3633542345, University of Chicago (UK), 978-1771642774, 288 pages, 2017 (US), 978-1911344773, 288 pages, 2015
Press (US), 978-0226924519, 336 pages, 2017
Packed with intriguing facts and For too long, the gut has been the
Few people thought as deeply or exquisite and rare artwork, ‘Birdmania’ body’s most ignored and least ap-
incisively about Germany, Jewish showcases an eclectic and fascinating preciated organ, but it turns out that
identity, and the Holocaust as selection of bird devotees who would it’s responsible for more than just
Hannah Arendt and Gershom do anything for their feathered friends. dirty work: our gut is at the core of
Scholem. And, as this landmark In addition to well-known enthusiasts who we are. “Gut”, an international
volume reveals, much of that thinking such as Aristotle, Charles Darwin, bestseller, gives the alimentary canal
was developed in dialogue, and Helen Macdonald, Brunner its long-overdue moment in the
through more than two decades introduces readers to a selection of spotlight. With quirky charm, rising
of correspondence. In a world that less well-known people with a passion science star Giulia Enders addresses
continues to struggle with questions for birds, including George Archibald, questions like: why does acid reflux
of nationalism, identity, and who performed mating dances for happen? What’s really up with gluten
difference, Arendt and Scholem an endangered whooping crane and lactose intolerance? How does
remain crucial thinkers. called Tex to encourage her to lay. the gut affect obesity and mood?
8Non-Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Upheaval: The Refugee Trek White Magic Blitzed. Drugs in Nazi Germany
Through Europe Weiße Magie: Der totale Rausch:
Einbruch der Wirklichkeit: Die Epoche des Papiers Drogen im Dritten Reich
Auf dem Flüchtlingstreck
LOTHAR MÜLLER, German NORMAN OHLER, German
durch Europa
Translated by Jessica Spengler Translated by Shaun Whiteside
NAVID KERMANI, German Carl Hanser Verlag, 978-3446239111 KiWi-Taschenbuch, 978-3462050356
Translated by Tony Crawford Polity Press (UK), 978-0745672533, Allen Lane (UK), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (US),
C. H. Beck, 978-3406692086 352 pages, 2015 978-0241256992, 128 pages, 2016
Polity Press (US), 978-1509518678,
In this brilliant new book Lothar The Nazis presented themselves as
100 pages, 2017
Müller describes how paper made warriors against moral degeneracy.
In the autumn of 2015, award-win- its way from China through the Arab Yet Norman Ohler‘s gripping best-
ning writer Navid Kermani decided world to Europe, where it permeated seller reveals that the entire Third
to accompany refugees on the everyday life from the thirteenth Reich was permeated with drugs.
‘Balkan route’. Kermani exposes the century onwards, and how the Methamphetamines, or crystal
cultural and political upheaval that paper technology revolution of meth, were used by everyone from
has caused people to uproot their the nineteenth century paved the factory workers to housewives,
lives, at the same time shining a light way for the creation of the modern and crucial to troops‘ resilience —
on Europe‘s inadequate response to daily press. With the proliferation of even partly explaining German
the refugees. Interspersed with digital devices, paper may seem to victory in 1940. While drugs cannot
powerful images by the acclaimed be a residue of the past, but Müller on their own explain the events of
photographer Moises Saman, reveals this humble technology to the Second World War or its
‘Upheaval’ is a much-needed human be the most fundamental medium outcome Ohler shows how they
account of a crisis we cannot ignore. of the modern world. alter our understanding of it.
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Farewell to the Horse: The Final Kafka: The Early Years Looking at Pictures
Century of Our Relationship Kafka: Die frühen Jahre Von Bildern
Das letzte Jahrhundert der
REINER STACH, German ROBERT WALSER, Swiss
Pferde: Geschichte einer
Translated by Shelley Frisch Translated by Susan Bernofsky, Lydia
Trennung
Fischer Taschenbuch, 978-3596031405 Davis and Christopher Middleton
ULRICH RAULFF, German Princeton University (US), Insel Verlag, 978-3458192824
Translated by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp 978-0691151984, 336 pages, 2016 New Directions (US), 978-0811224246,
C. H. Beck, 978-3406682445 144 pages, 2015
How did Kafka become Kafka?
Allen Lane (UK), Allen Lane The Penguin
This eagerly anticipated third An elegant collection, with gor-
Press (US), 978-0241257609, 464 pages, 2017
and final volume of Reiner Stach‘s geous full-colour art reproductions,
‘Farewell to the Horse’ is a moving definitive biography of the writer ‘Looking at Pictures’ presents a
discussion of what horses once meant answers that question with more little-known aspect of the
to us. Cities, farmland, entire industries facts and insight than ever before, eccentric Swiss writer‘s genius.
were once shaped as much by the describing the complex personal, Robert Walser‘s essays consider
needs of horses as humans. The inter- political, and cultural circum- famous painters such as Van Gogh,
vention of horses was fundamental in stances that shaped the young Manet and Rembrandt, as well as
countless historical events. They were Franz Kafka (1883-1924). It tells the discussing general topics such as
sculpted, painted, cherished, admired; story from his birth in Prague to the the character of the artist and the
they were thrashed, abused and ex- beginning of his professional and differences between painters and
posed to terrible danger. Ulrich Raulff‘s literary career in 1910, up until the poets. Each piece is marked by
bestseller is a superb monument to the breakthrough that resulted in his Walser’s unique eye, his delicate
endlessly various creature who has so first masterpieces. sensitivity and all are touched by
often shared and shaped our fate. his magic screwball wit.
9Non-Fiction
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Summer Before the Dark: The Hidden Life of Trees The Trick
Stefan Zweig and Joseph Das geheime Leben der Der Trick
Roth, Ostend 1936 Bäume
EMANUEL BERGMANN, German
Ostende. 1936, Sommer
PETER WOHLLEBEN, German Diogenes, 978-3257069556
der Freundschaft
Translated by Jane Billinghurst Atria Books (Simon & Schuster) (US),
VOLKER WEIDERMANN, German Ludwig Buchverlag, 978-3453280670 978-1501155826, 375 pages, 2017
Translated by Carol Brown Janeway Greystone English (World) (US),
btb Verlag, 978-3442715169, Pushkin 978-1771642484, 288 pages, 2016 A deeply moving, humorous story
Press (UK), Knopf/Pantheon (US), 978- of a boy who believes in everything
Are trees social beings?
1782272038, 160 pages, 2016 and an old man who believes in
In this international bestseller Peter
nothing. In 1934, a rabbi’s son
It’s the summer of 1936, and the writer Wohlleben convincingly makes the
in Prague joins a traveling circus,
Stefan Zweig is in crisis. His German case that the forest is a social net-
becomes a magician, and rises to
publisher no longer wants him and his work. He draws on ground-breaking
fame under the stage name the
marriage is collapsing. So he journeys scientific discoveries to describe
Great Zabbatini. Seven decades
to Ostend – the Belgian beach town how trees are like human families:
later in Los Angeles, ten-year-old
that is a paradise of promenades, tree parents live together with their
Max finds a scratched-up LP that
parasols, and old friends – with his children, communicate with them,
captured Zabbatini performing his
lover, Lotte Altmann, and reunites with share nutrients with those who are
greatest tricks. Max seeks out the
fellow writer and friend Joseph Roth, struggling, and even warn each
now elderly, cynical magician and
who is himself about to fall in love. other of impending dangers.
the two develop an unlikely friend-
‘Ostend’ is the true story of two of the After learning about the complex
ship.
twentieth century’s great writers, a life of trees, a walk in the woods will
dazzling work of historical nonfiction. never be the same again.
Planning and organisation
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________
Planning and organisation: Editing: Contact:
Frankfurter Buchmesse For questions, please contact
Sheridan Marshall, Epsom, UK
Bärbel Becker
Braubachstraße 16 Design, setting:
E-mail: becker@book-fair.com
60311 Frankfurt am Main www.weirauch-mediadesign.de
Phone: +49 (0) 69 2102 258
book-fair.com
____________________________ book-fair.com/german_collecti-
buchmesse.de
With support from: ve_stands
Federal Foreign Office
____________________________
© Frankfurter Buchmesse GmbH,
Frankfurt am Main 2018.
No reproduction without prior
permission of the publisher.
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