Jonathan Franzen once rhetorically asked: “Who would have thought contemporary Central European literature could be so fun and so funny?”
Franzen was referring to Daniel Kehlmann (b. 1975). Kehlmann, who spends his time between Berlin and Vienna, has won various awards for his writing, including the prestigious literary award handed out by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. His 2005 historical novel Die Vermessung der Welt (Measuring the World) sold 1.5 million copies and was featured on The New York Times’ worldwide bestselling list for 2006. It is the story of German explorers Alexander Humboldt and Johann Friedrich Gauss, whose discoveries shape our perceptions to this day. Kehlmann’s language reflects the thoroughness of his subjects. Embellishments are just not his thing, or, as he puts it himself: “Telling the story means injecting tension where there isn’t any initially, creating developmental structure and consistency at a point where reality has none to offer”.
Remarkable Books:
| 2009 | Leo Richters Portrait (lit: Leo Richter's Portrait) |
| 2009 | Ruhm. Ein Roman in neun Geschichten (lit: Glory. A Novel With Nine Stories) |
| 2005 | Die Vermessung der Welt (Measuring The World) |
