German Book Prize 2008
Judges Nominate Six Novels for the Shortlist
The six finalists for the German Book Prize 2008 have now been chosen. "The judges wrestled over the shortlist with dedication and considerable passion. There were arguments, advocacy, dismissals and defence – all in an extremely stimulating, constructive way, just as it should be for an open, critical literary analysis", says the spokesman for the judges, Rainer Moritz. "The outcome, the shortlist, does not represent a uniform approach in terms of subject matter or style; far rather, so the judges hope, it demonstrates the varied range of very readable novels produced by German-language authors in 2008." In the course of the last five months, the seven judges have looked through a total of 161 titles published between 1 October 2007 and 17 September 2008.
The nominated novels (in alphabetical order):
- Dietmar Dath: DIE ABSCHAFFUNG DER ARTEN (Suhrkamp, September 2008)
- Sherko Fatah: DAS DUNKLE SCHIFF (Jung und Jung, February 2008)
- Iris Hanika: TREFFEN SICH ZWEI (Droschl, January 2008)
- Rolf Lappert: NACH HAUSE SCHWIMMEN (Hanser, February 2008)
- Ingo Schulze: ADAM UND EVELYN (Berlin Verlag, August 2008)
- Uwe Tellkamp: DER TURM (Suhrkamp, September 2008)
"This year's judges have dealt with a wide-ranging programme and from an abundance of very good German-language novels, have chosen six finalists for the German Book Prize 2008. Among readers, critics, publishers and booksellers, their works will impact decisively on this autumn's debate surrounding current German-language literature – a debate that thanks to the German Book Prize has also intensified again especially on the foreign literary and publishing scene", according to Gottfried Honnefelder, president of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association – Börsenverein – and chairman of the German Book Prize Academy.
The judges for the German Book Prize 2008 are: Rainer Moritz (director of the Literaturhaus, Hamburg and spokesman for the judges), Christoph Bartmann (director of the Goethe-Institut’s Culture and Information Department), Martin Ebel (culture editor at the Tages-Anzieger, Zürich), Meike Fessmann (freelance critic), Jens Jessen (head of the feature section at DIE ZEIT), Manfred Keiper (owner of the bookshop “andere Buchhandlung”, Rostock), and Michael Schmitt (editor, “Kulturzeit” 3sat).
The winner receives 25,000 euros in prize money, the other five finalists 2,500 euros each. The German Publishers & Booksellers Association – Börsenverein – awards the German Book Prize 2008 to the year's best German-language novel. The prize presentation ceremony will be held in the Kaisersaal at Frankfurt's Römer on 13 October 2008 in the immediate run-up to the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The German Book Prize is sponsored by Paschen & Companie and the 1822-Stiftung der Frankfurter Sparkasse. Its other partners are the Frankfurt Book Fair and Frankfurt City. Support for the German Book Prize from Deutsche Welle primarily involves media publicity in other countries. As part of reports and debates, radio stations Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandradio will broadcast the presentation ceremony live on LW 153 and 177 kHz and on MW 990 and 855 kHz, as well as on digital satellite radio DVB-S, Bouquet ZDF.vision and on livestream on the internet at www.dradio.de
At the same time as the shortlist is announced in the Lesesaal at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, an online forum for the German Book Prize opens at http://www.faz.net/buchpreis2008. This is where the novels nominated for the shortlist are discussed and rated by readers and experts who include the 2007 prize laureate Julia Franck, Denis Scheck (druckfrisch, ARD), the author Bodo Kirchhoff and Hubert Spiegel (executive editor for literature and literary life, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). Extracts, brief profiles of the authors and reviews provide a first impression of the nominated novels.
Further information and details of events featuring the prize winner in the course of the Frankfurt Book Fair can be found on the website www.deutscher-buchpreis.de
Frankfurt am Main, 17 September 2008
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