Nominees for book awards present a "wavering representation of reality"
The German Book Prize longlist for 2025 features an impressive array of 20 outstanding novels from a diverse group of authors. These works reflect a wide spectrum of contemporary realities and literary styles, engaging with the "alarming reality of the present" and exploring how current conditions affect individuals and society.
The themes range from precarious and uncertain present conditions to historical panoramas, dystopias, autobiographical and fantastical tales, using narrative techniques such as classical storytelling, tapestries of speech, and unruly lists. Notable authors on the longlist include Kathrin Bach, Marko Dinić, Nava Ebrahimi, Dorothee Elmiger, Kaleb Erdmann, and Jehona Kicaj, among others.
Jehona Kicaj's novel, "ë", is particularly notable for exploring the pain of families affected by the Kosovo war, focusing on themes of displaced identity, loss, and the search for voice in the diaspora. Kaleb Erdmann is also recognized for having won the Nachwuchspreis at lit.Cologne, now appearing on this prestigious longlist.
The longlist was selected from 229 submissions over the period October 2024 to September 2025. A shortlist of six books will be announced on September 16, with the winner to be revealed on October 13 during the Frankfurt Book Fair. The prize carries a €25,000 award.
The longlisted novels cover a variety of themes, including identity, origin, belonging, family, humor, and wit. Some novels address dark and heavy themes, historical panoramas, contemporary observations, and dystopias, while others employ absurdity to both entertain and unsettle readers.
The jury highlights the use of creative language and narrative perspective in these works. Laura de Weck, the jury spokesperson, stated that the novels reflect the present by looking to the past or the future. The future of literature, according to de Weck, should not be a cause for concern.
Twelve female and eight male authors are represented on the longlist, underscoring the gender diversity in contemporary German-language literature. Some well-known authors on the longlist include Feridun Zaimoglu, Nava Ebrahimi, and Peter Wawerzinek. Marko Dinić's novel, "Book of Faces", uses humor to ridicule Putin's propaganda in the context of the Ukraine war, while Nava Ebrahimi's novel, "And Feathers Everywhere", is a mix of serial storytelling and societal satire centered around a chicken slaughterhouse.
The literary prize, named "Suspicious Literature", is based in Frankfurt/Main. Other novels on the longlist, for which details are not provided, include Annett Gröschner's "Hovering Burdens", Jonas Lüscher's "Enchanted Destiny", Gesa Olkusz's "The Language of My Brother", Lina Schwenk's "Blind Ghosts", Fiona Sironic's "On Saturday, the Girls Go into the Woods and Hunt Things in the Air", Christine Wunnicke's "Wax", Jacinta Nandi's "Single Mom Supper Club", Lena Schätte's "The Black on the Hands of My Father", and Dmitrij Kapitelman's "Russian Specialties".
Kathrin Bach's debut novel, "Life Insurance", is a tragicomic family history set in the West German provinces of the 1990s. Peter Wawerzinek, known for autobiographically tinged books, writes about human transience after a cancer diagnosis in his novel, "See Rome and Not Die". Thomas Melle's novel, "House to the Sun", and Michael Köhlmeier's "The Corrupted" are also on the longlist, but details are not provided.
The longlist underscores contemporary German-language literature’s engagement with both current societal anxieties and diverse narrative experimentation. The shortlist, to be announced on September 16, promises to be an exciting revelation, with the winner to be announced on October 13, the day before the Frankfurt Book Fair opens.
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