Looking Forward to 2025: Alex Roesch
V&Q Books Blog
by Katy Derbyshire
1M ago
Having looked back at 2024’s crop of German books, we’re now doing a spot of sooth-saying with translator Alex Roesch. As we step into 2025, German-language literature promises plenty to capture the imagination. A few upcoming titles have already caught my eye, each offering something refreshingly distinctive. From atmospheric stories set in untamed landscapes to ..read more
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Best German Books 2024: Siobhán Dowling
V&Q Books Blog
by Katy Derbyshire
1M ago
Here comes another list of translators’ top favourites from this year – this time from Siobhán Dowling. Among many great reads this year (including Mithu Sanyal’s Identitti and Helene Bukowski’s Milchzähne), there were quite a few that dealt with aspects of life in the former East Germany as well as the fall of the Berlin ..read more
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Best German Books 2024: Rachel Ward
V&Q Books Blog
by Katy Derbyshire
2M ago
The latest in our annual series of translators on their favourite German books of the year is Rachel Ward. My German book of the year was Junge Frau, am Fenster stehend, Abendlicht, blaues Kleid [Young Woman Standing at the Window, Evening Light, Blue Dress] by Alena Schröder (dtv, 2021). Hannah is a student in Berlin who suddenly discovers that ..read more
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Best German Books 2024: Lucy Jones
V&Q Books Blog
by Katy Derbyshire
2M ago
Next up in our annual series of translators on their favourite reads of the year is Lucy Jones. Elias Hirschl: Content Hirschl’s humour is the driest kind. After Salonfähig, a grisly satire, he has now written a dystopian novel centred on young people who work for the Smile Smile content farm. Set in a ghost ..read more
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Best German Books 2024: Jamie Bulloch
V&Q Books Blog
by Katy Derbyshire
2M ago
Second in our annual series of translators on their favourite reads of the year is Jamie Bulloch. As each year passes, the proportion of books I read that are in German seems to grow. This year I’ve had more to choose from than ever and haven’t managed to narrow it down to fewer than five ..read more
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Best German Books 2024: Annie Rutherford
V&Q Books Blog
by Katy Derbyshire
2M ago
Continuing our annual series of translators on their favourite reads of the year, here is Annie Rutherford. Isabel Bogdan: Wohnverwandtschaften One of the things I love about Isabel Bogdan’s writing (which I, err, have spent quite a bit of time with – see The Peacock) is the way Isa draws her characters – endearing, slightly ..read more
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My German Book of the Year 2024
V&Q Books Blog
by Katy Derbyshire
2M ago
There was one novel that grabbed me so hard this year, it put all other books in the shade for months. You must know that phenomenon: a book so delicious, everything that comes after it tastes bland. Enough metaphors. It was Clemens Meyer’s Die Projektoren. As you may know, I’ve translated most of the author’s ..read more
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German Book Prize 2024: the Longlist
V&Q Books Blog
by Katy Derbyshire
5M ago
What treasures lie in wait among the nominations for Germany’s biggest literary award? A writer friend and I have an annual tradition, usually performed lying on towels at our local lido. On the morning of the announcement, we pick over the longlist for the German Book Prize and choose our favourite nominations, and also draw ..read more
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August is Women in Translation Month
V&Q Books Blog
by Katy Derbyshire
6M ago
Summer’s the perfect time to focus on women’s writing in translation, with #WiTMonth running all August on social media – and hopefully on your bookshelves. The campaign’s been running for ten years now and we’ve seen a massive increase in women-authored books published in translation since Meytal Radzinski got the ball rolling in 2014. Back ..read more
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A Utopian Future of Translation Publishing in Germany
V&Q Books Blog
by Katy Derbyshire
7M ago
In Germany (and the Netherlands, and a number of other countries) the young generation has been raised on a media diet incredibly rich in English-language content. Talk to anyone from about 30 and under, and you’ll probably find they speak extremely good English. It’s amazing! They’re great! They’re on TikTok and all those platforms, and they’re reading in English. Hooray! Good for them. According to the article I linked above, it’s partly because the books they want to read aren’t available in translation, partly because they want “undiluted” originals – and I’d add it’s partly because they w ..read more
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