Deutsche Bücher
August 25, 2019 9:44 AM Subscribe
I'd like to read more contemporary German fiction and am looking for recommendations on novels and authors! I don't speak German, but I read in both English and French (though I'll also welcome recs for untranslated literature to keep in mind for the future).
I'm particularly, but not exclusively, interested in:
- LGBT-related themes
- Berlin themes (this is prompted by a trip to Berlin)
- Novels set in/addressing Cold War issues and divided Germany/Berlin
- Family sagas and novels with family secrets
- Cleverly constructed thrillers or murder mysteries
- Just plain entertaining/gripping plots, I am not a genre snob by any means!
For some specific examples, I just read and loved Trümmerkind by Mechtild Borrmann (in its French translation Sous les décombres). I'm just starting to read Das kalte Blut by Chris Kaus (French: La fabrique des salauds) and In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts by Eugen Ruge (English: In Times of Fading Light which have descriptions that appealed to me.
The one big caveat I have is that I read primarily for entertainment, so plot is important to me: the more something is like Ulysses, the less I'm going to like it, and if the review says something along the lines of "not much happens but..." or "this experimental piece of fiction" that's pretty much not for me.
I've read this question about books set in East Germany and this one about books before a German trip, but I'm looking specifically for German-language writers; and I've read this one about German novels but because I don't actually plan to read in German, the language difficulty isn't relevant to me.
Danke schön!
I'm particularly, but not exclusively, interested in:
- LGBT-related themes
- Berlin themes (this is prompted by a trip to Berlin)
- Novels set in/addressing Cold War issues and divided Germany/Berlin
- Family sagas and novels with family secrets
- Cleverly constructed thrillers or murder mysteries
- Just plain entertaining/gripping plots, I am not a genre snob by any means!
For some specific examples, I just read and loved Trümmerkind by Mechtild Borrmann (in its French translation Sous les décombres). I'm just starting to read Das kalte Blut by Chris Kaus (French: La fabrique des salauds) and In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts by Eugen Ruge (English: In Times of Fading Light which have descriptions that appealed to me.
The one big caveat I have is that I read primarily for entertainment, so plot is important to me: the more something is like Ulysses, the less I'm going to like it, and if the review says something along the lines of "not much happens but..." or "this experimental piece of fiction" that's pretty much not for me.
I've read this question about books set in East Germany and this one about books before a German trip, but I'm looking specifically for German-language writers; and I've read this one about German novels but because I don't actually plan to read in German, the language difficulty isn't relevant to me.
Danke schön!
I haven’t read it myself (yet) but Carolin Emcke’s biography How we desire has a LGBT related theme, and from hearing her speak at a writers festival I have every reason to believe it would be good.
posted by EatMyHat at 3:15 PM on August 25, 2019
posted by EatMyHat at 3:15 PM on August 25, 2019
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Look who’s back about Hitler coming back to modern 2012 Berlin. Also made into a movie - good movie.
posted by From Bklyn at 10:44 AM on August 25, 2019