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Books
Books carry the knowledge and the dreams, the feelings and the stories of people throughout time.
Skip next section All Content on this topic
All Content on this topic
Gert Hofmann: 'The Film Explainer'
Gert Hofmann's novel is not only a nostalgic cultural take; it also attempts to unravel the German mentality.
Patrick Süskind: 'Perfume'
Several publishers rejected the manuscript before the novel became an international bestseller.
Jörg Fauser: 'Raw Material'
He wrote faster, harder, more concisely than anyone else. Jörg Fauser was the king of the literary underground.
Thomas Bernhard: 'Woodcutters'
A writer who berated all — and whose rants inspired literary masterpieces.
Ernst Haffner: 'Blood Brothers'
They steal, they sell their bodies and beat each other up in Berlin during the 1930s in Ernst Haffner's novel.
Rainald Goetz: 'Insane'
Rainald Goetz's first novel is set in the world of psychiatry. It's a mad world — and a book that is hard to digest.
Irmgard Keun: 'The Artificial Silk Girl'
Weimar-era Berlin, a riot of color and criminality, is brought to life through the eyes of 18-year-old Doris.
Erich Kästner: 'Going to the Dogs'
An intoxicating book, like a ramble through Berlin's seedy side, published shortly before the Nazis came to power.
Peter Schneider: 'The Wall Jumper'
Peter Schneider wrote "The Wall Jumper" in 1982. In retrospect, it almost seems prophetic.
Gregor von Rezzori: 'Memoirs of an Anti-Semite'
Gregor von Rezzori relies on humor and sarcasm to expose the ignorance that goes hand in hand with nationalist delusion.
Joseph Roth: 'Job'
The loyalty of a young Jewish believer is put to a hard test in Joseph Roth's novel.
Edgar Hilsenrath: 'The Nazi and the Barber'
The history of the Shoah as a dark comedy of mistaken identities told by a mass murderer.
Heinrich Böll: 'The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum'
A young woman at the center of a community's hysteria becomes the victim of a media smear campaign.
Vicki Baum: 'Grand Hotel'
This book reflected the spirit of the times in the 1920s, and turned its creator into a best-selling author.
Ulrich Plenzdorf: 'The New Sorrows of Young W.'
Plenzdorf's book from 1973 was a shock for the East German establishment, but it also made him famous.
Peter Handke: 'Short Letter, Long Farewell'
Peter Handke’s coming-of-age tale of a journey through the US in the 1970s and a troubled search for a lost brother.
Ingeborg Bachmann: 'Malina'
Living and loving is torture, as Bachmann's controversial novel reveals.
Uwe Johnson: 'Anniversaries'
Four volumes, 366 chapter and 1891 pages: Uwe Johnson's ambitious novel is truly the work of a lifetime.
Alfred Döblin: 'Berlin Alexanderplatz'
It's a classic of world literature and masterpiece of German modernism that bears witness to the Weimar Republic.
Jurek Becker: 'Jakob the Liar'
Hope, life's elixir: Becker's novel about Jews in a ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland is gripping, melancholic, humorous.
Marlen Haushofer: 'The Wall'
What remains of a person who lives in complete isolation — confined entirely to the wild?
Anonymous: 'A Woman in Berlin'
Berlin in the last months of World War II was no place for a woman, as this diary by a 30-something journalist reveals.
Ernst Jünger: 'Storm of Steel'
He captured the horrors of World War I in his novel, garnering him intense criticism.
Günter Grass: 'The Tin Drum'
Oskar Matzerath and his tin drum — an unforgettable literary figure that is world-renowned.
Max Frisch: 'Homo Faber'
How can a person deal with an irrational coincidence challenging one's very existence in this modern day and age?
Gert Ledig: 'Payback'
Gert Ledig's "Payback" describes the bombing of a German city by an American air regiment.
Heimito von Doderer: 'The Demons'
None of the novels that deal with Europe between the wars is as sweeping and yet profound as this Vienna-based epic.
Hans Fallada: 'Alone in Berlin'
Fallada's masterpiece tells of citizen resistance against a brutal Nazi regime.
Ernst Lothar: 'The Vienna Melody'
It's a love story, war drama and family tragedy all in one, and a must-read about Austria's tumultuous history.
Heinrich Mann: 'The Loyal Subject'
It's a satire of the pre-WWI German Empire — and a scathing example of the ugly German.
Kurt Tucholsky: 'Rheinsberg'
A couple head out to a resort together without being married: A love story narrated in an easy, breezy way.
Stefan Zweig: 'Beware of Pity'
"Beware of Pity" is a melancholy tale of misdirected admiration and pity.
Klaus Mann: 'Mephisto'
The literary psychological profile of a Third Reich follower was not allowed to be published in Germany for decades.
Else Lasker-Schüler: 'My Heart'
An expressionist poetess's farewell to a marriage — and an era.
Robert Walser: 'Jakob von Gunten'
The Swiss author's most mysterious book is a portrait of the most devoted revolutionary in literary history.
Robert Musil: 'The Confusions of Young Master Törless'
One is mistaken in calling this a story of disdain about boarding school. Robert Musil's novel is about power and abuse.
Thomas Mann: 'Buddenbrooks'
This is a literary masterpiece about the collapse of a family, and a panoramic view of society in the 19th century.
Georgia fights over its future
Even as it takes the spotlight at the 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair, Georgia is arguing over its European identity.
'Death in Rome' by Wolfgang Koeppen
Every big family has a black sheep. Or two. But what if the black sheep are the good guys?
'The Demons' by Heimito von Doderer
Heimito von Doderer was a Nazi and a sadist. But he could write: "The Demons" is a portrait of 1920s Viennese society.
'Payback' by Gert Ledig
Gert Ledig's "Payback" is relentless and excruciating - important reading for anyone who hasn't lived through war.
'Homo Faber' by Max Frisch
Afraid of relationships? "Homo Faber" by Max Frisch is about a serious commitment-phobe.
'The Tin Drum' by Günter Grass
AAAAAAH! A voice that can shatter glass. Curtain up for Oskar Matzerath, Günter Grass and "The Tin Drum" !
'A Woman in Berlin' by Anonymous
The end of World War II heralded a new nightmare for many women, as "A Woman in Berlin" by Anonymous reveals.
'The Blind Side of the Heart' by Julia Franck
What would drive a mother to abandon her only child? "The Blind Side of the Heart" by Julia Franck tells the story.
'Babylon Berlin' by Volker Kutscher
If you're looking for a romp through Berlin in the Roaring 20s, "Babylon Berlin" by Volker Kutscher is the book for you.
'The Oppermanns' by Lion Feuchtwanger
After 1945 many Germans pleaded ignorance of the Holocaust. But many authors saw this disaster coming!
'Broken Glass Park' by Alina Bronsky
The band Bronski Beat are pretty unmistakable. Well, novelist Alina Bronsky's got a beat, too!
'Threepenny Novel' by Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht's 'Threepenny Opera' is world famous. His lesser-known 'Threepenny Novel' deserves to be rediscovered.
'Visitation' by Jenny Erpenbeck
A seemingly idyllic lakeside house whose history reflects the turbulence and brutality of the 20th century.
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