Book of the month 2003

Das Umstellformat depicts the narrator's search for her grandmother who died in the early 1940s. Together with her mother, the young Austrian doctor commences on a journey that brings them to three psychiatric hospitals in which the grandmother was kept as a patient until her death in 1943, in Germany.More ...

The characters call their promised land "Bundes", short for Bundesrepublik. During the 1980ies Sonja's family dreams of leaving Poland and living in Germany. Germany is the land of Mercedesy, of huge palaces clad in velvet, of rust-free Gardena garden tools, and generally an attitude towards life that differs a lot from the Polish: "Somehow fudge your way through life and hope for the best."More ...

Herr Lehmann refers to the main character's surname. His name is Frank, but with his 30th birthday fast approaching his friends decided to call him "Herr Lehmann". For Frank the joke is beyond funny. In fact it is simply ridiculous.More ...

On 30.January 1945 the liner Wilhelm Gustloff sank in the bay of Danzig having been hit by a Russian torpedo. On board were 9000 refugees half of whom were children. Only a few hundred survived this "biggest shipping catastrophe of all times".More ...

An unemployed art historian, dressed in a wetsuit and flippers, waddles through a pedestrianised shopping precinct, distributing advertising leaflets : this is only one of the bizarre and tragicomical episodes in the daily life of East Germany following the "Wende", told by Ingo Schulze in his novel Simple Stories.More ...

In the "salle des pas perdus", a gloomy train station in Antwerp, the narrator in the first person notices a man: almost youthful, blonde, with heavy walking boots, blue dungarees, carrying a worn-out rucksack, who is intently preoccupied with making notes and sketches in a copybook.More ...

When fifteen year old Michael contracts hepatitis he falls ill in the street. A woman in her early thirties rescues him and brings him home. Once Michael has recovered he visits the woman to thank her for her help. His second encounter with Hanna leads to a sexual affair which ends apruptly when she suddenly disappears.More ...

On 30.January 1945 the liner Wilhelm Gustloff sank in the bay of Danzig having been hit by a Russian torpedo. On board were 9000 refugees half of whom were children. Only a few hundred survived this "biggest shipping catastrophe of all times".More ...

Critics have praised it as "the most significant book of the year" and the reading public has already ensured its bestseller status. The "Story" concerns, on the one hand, Haffner's life story between 1907 and 1939, the years between his birth and his exile, and on the other hand Germany's "history".More ...

Micha and his friends Wuschel, Mario and Brille are seventeen and in love. The object of their affection is the ravishingly beautiful Miriam who takes no notice of them despite their many attempts to impress her. Micha, however, has worked out a plan to win her favour and appears to succeed where his friends fail.More ...