The Frankfurt Book Fair and the German Book Prize  A Distillation of the Times

When the literary world gathers at Frankfurt Book Fair in October, the pressing issues of our time will take centre stage. How is contemporary German-language literature responding to these challenges? The six novels shortlisted for the 2026 German Book Prize offer a glimpse: exploring war, memory, the climate crisis, migration and visions of the future, they paint a multifaceted portrait of the world we live in.

2026 is a year of elections in Germany, with voters recently heading to the polls in three eastern German states. In Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the right-wing populist AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) emerged as the strongest party and also achieved significant gains in the Berlin state election. The rise of the right is a global phenomenon that is now also shaping Germany’s political reality. None of this comes as a surprise, yet it remains deeply unsettling.

But political polarisation is far from the only source of uncertainty. The climate crisis, Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, the continuing war in Gaza and fierce debates over when criticism of Israel crosses the line into antisemitism, as well as a persistently fragile economic situation – all of this is shaping the public mood. So how do you tell the story of a present defined by uncertainty and upheaval?

The Shortlist: a reflection of today’s crises

Against this backdrop, Germany’s literary landscape in 2026 is a mirror of our times. The shortlist for this year’s German Book Prize reads like a distillation of our current crises – and yet it is far more than a reflection of political and social moods. These books explore historical trauma, ongoing wars, technological utopias and dystopias, the climate crisis and migration. They ask how people can live together in an increasingly fragmented world without losing sight of the lessons of history.

Shimmering, interwoven sentences and wild linguistic flights of fancy stand alongside clear-eyed, sober, yet never unsentimental observations of the human condition. Literature is given room to breathe again: this year’s shortlisted novels alone run between 304 and 640 pages. While shorter, often autobiographical books tended to dominate in recent years, fiction has now moved back into the foreground. Again and again, the authors ask how reality is narrated, remembered or manipulated. Their books expose truths without humiliating their subjects, portraying people in all their complexity – without fear or soft-focus filters.

Shida Bazyar: Die Lücken (Omissions)

At the forefront is Shida Bazyar’s monumental third novel, Die Lücken. Bazyar tells the story of a village in the Hunsrück region of Rhineland-Palatinate, tracing its history across several generations, beginning in the years before and during the Nazi era. Where a vibrant Jewish community once formed an integral part of village life beyond religious lines, Bazyar shows – clearly yet lyrically – how suddenly the political mood can shift: Jewish friends become enemies overnight, are persecuted, driven out and deported. Many villagers turn a blind eye or profit from the property of the persecuted. After the war, this past falls silent. The novel’s collage-like structure weaves together different periods and perspectives, carrying the village’s history vividly through to the 2010s. At its heart are two Iranian refugee families who experience discrimination but find different ways of building lives in the community. The novel’s title says it all: Bazyar shines a light on the gaps and silences in Germany’s past that extend deep into the present, while also addressing a blind spot in contemporary German-language literature, where much still remains unspoken.

Franziska Gänsler: Orca

No less unsettling, though threatening in a very different way, is Franziska Gänsler’s third novel, Orca. One of the most prominent observers of the climate crisis, Gänsler tells the story of Cora, a student at a boarding school for wealthy teenagers, who desperately wants to fit in. Together with her friend Olympia, she joins a climate activist group whose tactics become increasingly radical. The novel draws on the Fridays for Future movement and the political backlash against it, raising questions about the limits of political action and the dangers of fanaticism. At the same time, it explores the human need for belonging and recognition.

Elias Hirschl: Schleifen (Loops)

Austrian author Elias Hirschl also explores themes of radicalism and isolation – with wit and inventive flair. His sixth novel, Schleifen, follows linguist Franziska Denk and mathematician Otto Mandl as they set out to develop the perfect universal language. They believe that such a language could eliminate misunderstandings and resolve the problems inherent in human communication. But the more determined they become to structure and regulate language, the more their experiments spiral out of control. It is a novel about communication and its limits, distinguished above all by its linguistic virtuosity.

Valeria Gordeev: Die Zikade entschlüpft ihrer goldglänzenden Hülle (The Cicada Sheds Its Shiny Golden Skin)

As linguistically powerful as it is surreal, Valeria Gordeev’s debut novel is a striking addition to this year’s shortlist. Winner of the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in 2023, Gordeev spent around ten years working on Die Zikade entschlüpft ihrer goldglänzenden Hülle. The novel follows siblings Lada and Konstantin as they move between Berlin, Kyiv and Moscow. Gordeev intertwines family conflict with war, political violence and the power of wealthy elites, addressing the war in Ukraine alongside authoritarian power structures and the technological utopia of a life without death.

Peggy Mädler: Selbstregulierung des Herzens (Self-Regulation of the Heart)

A quieter, more restrained tone characterises Peggy Mädler’s third novel. Selbstregulierung des Herzens tells the story of Georg, who is convinced that cybernetics – the science of controlling and regulating complex systems – can save East Germany, his free-spirited artist girlfriend Mona and their wider circle of friends. The characters’ lives unfold from the 1960s to the present day. The only East German voice on this year’s shortlist, Mädler intertwines East German history with personal relationships and the question of how deeply political systems shape individual lives. She also reminds us that there is no single East German story. Many different lives and experiences are still waiting to be uncovered and debated – especially in a Germany that remains divided on so many levels between east and west.

Dana Vowinckel: Anton und Alma (Anton and Alma)

Dana Vowinckel’s page-turner Anton und Alma explores questions surrounding Jewish identity and what it means to be Jewish in Germany today. In her second novel, she uses the love story between the titular protagonists to trace how two young people’s relationship is burdened by their different backgrounds, religious identities and family conflicts. At the same time, Vowinckel addresses antisemitism, racism and Germany’s culture of remembrance, while also examining the current debate surrounding Israel and Palestine and the war in Gaza.

Contemporary German-language literature in 2026 – not only the shortlisted novels – offers a wide range of perspectives on power and vulnerability, belonging and exclusion. These novels do not speak from a single national or ideological centre. Instead, they emerge from a range of conflicting, often marginalised positions, reaching far beyond the German-speaking world. The questions they explore are universal: How do societies remember violence? How do people handle war and political polarisation? What does belonging mean in an age of rapid digitalisation and globalisation, with growing social isolation on the one hand, and the formation of elites on the other? Literature also shows how storytelling can give voice to experiences that lie beyond the reach of political language, thereby creating space for reflection.

September 2026