Book price shortlist: Austria among the best six twice
Monika Helfer and Norbert Gstrein are in the running for the German Book Prize today. There are three men and three women in the final.
Five authors from Austria were in the selection of the longlist for the German Book Prize, two made it in the final: Norbert Gstrein’s “The Second Jacob” and “Vati” by Monika Helfer. No longer included are Franzobel’s novel “The Conquest of America” and “My favorite animal is called Winter”, the first novel by Bachmann Prize winner Ferdinand Schmalz and – as a big surprise on the longlist – the father-son hike, which is becoming a memory expedition “Zu die Elefanten “by the historian Peter Karoshi, who lives in Vienna.
In addition to the three, Christian Kracht (“Eurotrash”), Thomas Kunst (“Zandschower Klinken”), Mithu Sanyal (“Identitti”) and Antje Rávik Strubel (“Blue Woman”) made it into the final.
This year 125 publishers submitted a total of 197 novels for the German Book Prize. In addition, the jury was able to propose further books itself, so that 230 titles were finally viewed. The German book trade association in Frankfurt announced that a new high had been reached. The decision on the best new release WILL be announced at the award ceremony on October 18th.