International Literature Prize shortlist: 6 books to check out
The major literary award honors a novel s German translation and offers a preview of acclaimed works that are also set to be published in English later this year.
Jonas Eika, Jenny Offill, Nastassja Martin, Ava Farmehri, Fatima Daas and Fang Fang are the nominated authors
Awarded annually since 2009 by the Berlin arts center Haus der Kulturen der Welt and the foundation Elementarteilchen, the International Literature Prize recognizes a work of international prose that has been translated into German.
The winning author will receive a prize of €20,000 ($25,000), and the translator €15,000. The winning work, to be revealed at the awards ceremony on June 30, is selected from a shortlist of six titles.
Frauenpower beim Leipziger Buchpreis | Bücher | DW dw.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dw.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Flashback to a childhood in Tehran
Iranian-Canadian author Ava Farmehri’s debut novel paints a bleak picture of growing up in Iran after the Islamic Revolution. The book is both a prison novel and a reflection on freedom. Gerrit Wustmann read it for Qantara.de Through the sad wood our corpses will hang . It could be the title of an American horror novel. Or something by Shakespeare. But it’s actually a quote from Dante’s
Inferno, the first part of the
Divine Comedy. It’s also the title of Ava Farmehri’s debut novel, originally published in Canada in 2017, and now available in German, translated by Sonja Finck. It is a title that presents the reader with a puzzle, making you wonder again and again over the course of the book what it actually has to do with the story.
Rights Outlook: Books From Québec Flourishing in German
Recently translated literature from Québec may find new life as part of Guest of Honor Canada’s programming at Frankfurter Buchmesse in October. Plus, rights recommendations from bookseller Olivier Boisvert. (Sponsored)
At Munich’s Arena cinema, February 18. Image – iStockphoto: MangoFriendly
Editor’s note: Germany’s health minister Jens Spahn tells Deutsche-Welle that the UK variant B.1.1.7 accounts for 22 percent of new infections in the country at this point. The 4:23 a.m. ET (0923 GMT) update of the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center sees 2,374,229 cases in Germany’s population of 83 million, with 67,248 fatalities. Porter Anderson