There is hardly a theatrical profession that has recently been so fostered, celebrated, loaded with prizes and grants as young dramatists....
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"German literature from Germany, Austria and Switzerland is enjoying an international reputation as seldom before – the German Book Prize contributes to this. That is why I am delighted that judges of great literary competence will be choosing the 'best German-language novel of 2008', ensuring the continuing success story of this prize", says Gottfried Honnefelder, president of the Börsenverein and chairman of the German Book Prize Academy. Over the past five months, the judges have read a total of 145 titles - 70 of which are due for publication next spring, 67 for summer and autumn and 8 novels are from 2007 autumn lists.
The novels shortlisted (in alphabetical order):
Dietmar Dath: The Abolition of the Species (Die Abschaffung der Arten)
Suhrkamp Verlag
September 2008
About the book
English excerpt
Sherko Fatah: The Dark Ship (Das dunkle Schiff)
Jung und Jung Verlag
Februar 2008
About the book
English excerpt
Iris Hanika: When Two Meet (Treffen sich zwei)
Droschl Verlag
Januar 2008
About the book
English excerpt
Rolf Lappert: Swimming Home (Nach Hause schwimmen)
Hanser Verlag
Februar 2008
About the book
English excerpt 
Ingo Schulze: Adam and Evelyn (Adam und Evelyn)
Berlin Verlag
August 2008
About the book
English excerpt
Uwe Tellkamp: The Tower (Der Turm)
Suhrkamp
September 2008
About the book
English excerpt
The judges for the German Book Prize 2008 are: Christoph Bartmann (director of the Goethe-Institut's Culture and Information Department), Martin Ebel (culture editor at the Tages-Anzeiger, Zürich), Meike Fessmann (freelance critic), Jens Jessen (head of the feature section at Die Zeit), Manfred Keiper (manager "andere Buchhandlung", Rostock), Rainer Moritz (director of the Literaturhaus, Hamburg) and Michael Schmitt (editor, "Kulturzeit" 3sat) will be choosing this year’s best German-language novel.
The winner will be announced at the award ceremony on 13 October.
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UPDATE: The German Book Prize 2009 has been awarded to Katrin Schmidt for her novel "You're Not Going to Die". Read excerpts from all the shortlisted titles - including one from the Nobel Prize laureate Herta Müller's novel "Everything I Own I Carry With Me".
Günter Grass has just published his diary from 1990, recording the tumultous events after the fall of the Berlin Wall. "From Germany to Germany" is a list of ominous predictions for the future of German unity. The former GDR writer Monika Maron looks at how blinded Grass was by his own preconceptions.
This year Turkey was the guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair. We introduce the books that attracted the most critical attention.
and all the best for 2009!
This year's prestigious Büchner Prize went to Austrian writer Josef Winkler. He talks to Paul Jandl about dung heaps, patriarchs, the fear of speechlessness and the elegance of John Paul II's coffin. Photo © Jerry Bauer / SV
The legendary German poets, Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan, met and fell in love in Vienna 1948. Their electric and torturous correspondence, which continued until 1961, has now been collected in book form for the first time. Ina Hartwig on what was probably the most complicated love story in post-war Germany.
The headlines were stolen by Charlotte Roche's moist little sex shocker and Jonathan Littell's sprawling SS fantasies but only two books united the critics: one is good and the other, utterly objectionable. There was a flurry of interest in some fabulous comics and a resurgence of the political and the historical novel. A dip into the books published in Germany this spring.
The nonfiction books this spring look into life as a budding president, a kitchen slave, a prophet, a string quartet. They pick apart the world of the elites, of lust and taste and '68.
Travels through the dreams and nightmares of Europe, in a small land of great poets, torn between Balkan catastrophe and Brussels. A reportage on Croatia, this year's partner country at the Leipzig Book Fair. By Gregor Dotzauer