From the German Bookshelves

"From the German Bookshelves" brings fresh voices from German literature to a global stage, showcasing the work of a new generation of authors in translation.

From the German Bookshelves © Getty Images

In Spotlight

Eva Menasse

Animals: Eight Studies for Experts

Eva Menasse’s patchwork collection of short stories take off on quirky animal anecdotes.

Author Photo (Detail) : © Gordon Welters / Book: Seagull / Graphic: © Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi / Canva Author Photo (Detail) : © Gordon Welters / Book: Seagull / Graphic: © Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi / Canva
Anne Weber

Epic Annette

Anne Weber’s German Book Prize-winning novel Epic Annette reimagines the life of the French Resistance fighter Annette Beaumanoir in the form of a free verse epic poem.

Photo (Detail): Hermance Triay / Book Cover: The Indigo Press / Visual: © Goethe Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi Photo (Detail): Hermance Triay / Book Cover: The Indigo Press / Visual: © Goethe Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi

Booktubing

Guide to German Must-Reads

Books are a gateway to new cultures. Through our BookTube videos, you can explore the rich world of German literature with beginner-friendly recommendations, today's most exciting novels, and remarkable authors.

Beginner’s Guide To Reading German Literature In India

What’s the last German book you read? Or haven’t you started yet? Well, here’s your chance! In this video, our BookTuber "Indian Booktuber" introduces the top six German books perfect for beginners, available right here in India.
7 Contemporary Fiction Books Translated Into English

Looking for book recommendations from Germany? In this video, our BookTuber "Indian Booktuber" presents seven contemporary novels translated into English – a must for all literature enthusiasts! Perfect for your next literary adventure!
Authors From German Literature

Curious about German authors? In this video, our BookTuber "Indian Booktuber" explores 9 contemporary German authors whose works are a must-read.

English Translations of German titles

Ariane Koch

OVERSTAYING

“I’m very interested in absurd moments and motifs. I believe that, like humor, the surreal has the great power to make statements about the real.”
Ariane Koch’s novel “Overstaying” reflects on the moralities of generosity with outlandish imagination and dreamlike prose.

Overstaying by Ariane Koch © Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi / Book Cover: Pushkin Press / Photo Courtesy: Heike Steinweg © Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi / Book Cover: Pushkin Press / Photo Courtesy: Heike Steinweg

Jenny Erpenbeck

Kairos

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, impressively translated by Michael Hofmann bares witness to a harrowing toxic love affair against the backdrop of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the final years of the GDR. Much like the novel Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors it displays the intricate power dynamics between young women and much older men.

© Sophia Hembeck © Sophia Hembeck
Jackie Thomae

Brothers

Two Half-Brothers, Different Destinies, and One Reunified Country – Jackie Thomae’s Brothers Documents Lives in a Germany Under Transformation.

© Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi / Author Picture Credit : Urban Zintel / Book Picture Credit: Prathap Nair © Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi / Author Picture Credit : Urban Zintel / Book Picture Credit: Prathap Nair
Julia von Lucadou

The High-Rise Diver

In her debut novel The High-Rise Diver, German author Julia von Lucadou envisions a society where surveillance has become the norm, and an individual's worth is determined solely by their performance metrics, painting a thought-provoking portrait of a dystopian future.

© Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan © Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan
Ulrike Almut Sandig

Monsters Like Us

Ulrike Almut Sandig’s elegiac Monsters Like Us is set in the East Germany on the cusp of liberation and reunification but deals with childhood trauma and how it shapes individuals. The book is brimming with tenderness for its broken characters and has been translated by Karen Leeder with meticulous care to retain its mellifluous prose.

© Seagull Books © Seagull Books
Mariana Leky

What You Can See from Here

“What happens when you are surrounded by the same people all your life; people you didn’t choose but whom you come to know maybe better than yourself over time.”
Mariana Leky’s international bestseller What You Can See from Here uses the rare central African mammal okapi as a euphemism for belonging in a strange yet familiar world and explores the complexities of human relationships in a close-knit German village.

© Book Cover by Bloomsbury Publishing | Portrait of Mariana Leky by Birte Filme © Book Cover by Bloomsbury Publishing | Portrait of Mariana Leky by Birte Filme
Judith Schalansky

An Inventory of Losses

What happens when something is lost to the world? With whatever traces left behind, can one retrace the lost object? What will remain when things are lost? These are some questions Judith Schalansky’s insightfully astute book An Inventory of Losses attempts to tackle.

Cover © Maclehose Press Cover © Maclehose Press
Nora Bossong

Gramsci's Fall

“(the) central questions of my novel are about the individual strength to love, the political power to improve society, and to fight for those who are too weak to fend for themselves…”
German writer and poet Nora Bossong’s Gramsci’s Fall is a tale of hopes and the heart-breaking disappointment of some revolutions.

Nora Bossong © Brost-Stiftung and Christian Deutscher Nora Bossong © Brost-Stiftung and Christian Deutscher
Joachim B. Schmidt

Kalmann

In the delightfully crowded field of Nordic noir, this crime thriller set in Iceland commands a unique place. After all, what more perfect setting could there be for crime fiction than deserted snow deserts tainted by wine-red blood from murder? The sparse landscape - populated by mysterious characters where myths abound - is where Swiss-Icelandic writer Joachim B. Schmidt successfully tapped into the genre. His book Kalmann is as much a whodunnit as it is a character study of its eponymous protagonist, a socially awkward man navigating a murder mystery in the hostile countryside.

Cover © Bitter Lemon Press; Portrait of Joachim B. Schmidt by Eva Schram Cover © Bitter Lemon Press; Portrait of Joachim B. Schmidt by Eva Schram
Karosh Taha

In the Belly of the Queen

“Kurdish people don’t immigrate; in most cases they are political refugees.”
Award-winning Kurdish-German author Karosh Taha’s In the Belly of the Queen is told from the perspective of two teenagers, Amal and Raffiq, and can be read from both ends of the book. What emerges is a broader picture of a community replete with themes of societal alienation, stifling patriarchy and embattled womanhood.

Cover © V&Q Books Cover © V&Q Books
Stefanie vor Schulte

Boy with a Black Rooster

“Writing a fairy tale for adults requires a few solid characters who can withstand the horror, and the courage to open up a gulf between good and evil…”
In her book Boy with a Black Rooster, debut German novelist Stefanie vor Schulte adeptly upgrades the fairy tale genre for adults, with captivating characters, and seductive prose, set in a medieval backdrop.

© Book Cover by The Indigo Press | Portrait of Stefanie vor Schulte by Gene Glover © Book Cover by The Indigo Press | Portrait of Stefanie vor Schulte by Gene Glover
Khuê Pham

Brothers and Ghosts

“In countries that have very strong rules of censorship, literature and poetry indeed can play an important role to vent thoughts and experiences and pose questions that are not so easily addressed in public discourse.”
Journalist turned novelist Khuê Pham’s debut novel “Brothers and Ghosts” lifts the lid on Vietnamese families to reveal their diasporic angst as a result of the displacement from their war-torn home country.

© Scribe Publications © Scribe Publications
Isabel Bogdan

The Peacock

A treat for fans of satirical novelists like Jonathan Coe, The Peacock by Isabel Bogdan is a comedy of errors that skewers workplace relationships, perfectly blending German humour and a Scottish setting.

© V&Q Books © V&Q Books
Shida Bazyar

Sisters in Arms: A Summer of Reckoning

If you didn’t want Zadie Smith’s novel NW to end, why not add Shida Bazyar’s Sisters in Arms to your TBR pile?

© Scribe Publications © Scribe Publications
Nino Haratischvili

Juja

A complex narrative that is both haunting and relentless in its exploration of dark emotional themes, Nino Haratischvili’s debut novel, Juja, will appeal to fans of unflinching contemporary writers like Evie Wyld.

© Scribe © Scribe
Wolfram Eilenberger

The Visionaries

Intellectually stimulating and thematically rich: Wolfram Eilenberger’s The Visionaries is a collective biography of four women who helped to shape twentieth-century philosophy and literature, a book that will appeal to readers of Francesca Wade’s Square Haunting.

© Klett-Cotta Verlag © Klett-Cotta Verlag
Christiane Ritter

A Woman in the Polar Night

Readers who found solace and inspiration in Amy Liptrot's memoir The Outrun will undoubtedly enjoy A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter.

© Pushkin Press © Pushkin Press
Brigitte Reimann

Siblings

Readers who first discovered German literature through Bernhard Schlink should check out Brigitte Reimann’s Siblings for a portrait of the 1960s in ‘the other Germany’.

© Penguin Classics © Penguin Classics
Fatma Aydemir

Djinns

A powerful tale of migration and family, Fatma Aydemir’s structurally complex Djinns weaves together several voices to create a rich narrative tapestry – a novel that will hold appeal for fans of Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other.

© Peirene Press © Peirene Press

This might interest you too

Literary translation

The German List

Seagull’s German List which is supported by the Goethe-Institut since 2009 now comprises more than 90 translations of formidable works of contemporary German literature by distinguished authors and laureates such as Max Frisch, Theodor W. Adorno, Thomas Bernhard, Hans Magnus Enzensberger and Ulrich Peltzer.

Illustration: Tobias Schrank, Goethe-Institut Illustration: Tobias Schrank, Goethe-Institut
E-library

Onleihe: German Digital Library

The eLibrary is the virtual library of the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan in India. This service allows you to borrow digital media, such as ebooks, audio and video files, electronic newspapers and magazines, by simply downloading it on your computer, your tablet or your eReader.

© Goethe-Institut © Goethe-Institut