Here is the second installment of World Cup reading. This time I'm featuring German authors. Germany is the second most populous country in Europe and soccer is its most popular sport. The German national soccer team won the FIFA World Cup in 1954, 1974, and 1990. They placed 3rd in this year's competition.
German speaking authors have won the Nobel Prize in Literature a total of 13 times including Gunter Grass in 1999, Heinrich Boll in 1972, Elfriede Jelinek in 2004, and last year Herta Muller won the 2009 prize. Here are some other German authors you should try:
Christoph Hein--Novelist, playwright, and essayist, he is one of Europe's most respected voices. He lives in Berlin. His book Settlement is about WWII refugee Bernhard Haber's struggle with a new home, loss, and revenge.
Juli Zeh--Worked at the United Nations in New York and Krakow and currently lives in Brandenburg. Her debut novel Eagles and Angels won numerous prizes, including the German Book Prize. Her current book In Free Fall is an international bestseller that combines a detective novel, cinematic storytelling, and an interesting take on quantum physics.
Bernhard Schlink--Author of the novel The Reader, which was an Oprah selection and an international best-seller. He divides his time between Berlin and New York. Self's Murder is the stellar series debut starring Nazi prosecutor turned private investigator Gerhard Self.
Alina Bronsky--Born in Jekaterinburg, Russia, in 1978, the author now lives in Frankfurt. This is a pseudonym and little else is known about the author's true identity. Broken Glass Park has been nominated for the prestigious Bachmann Prize, among others, and is her first novel. In this riveting debut, Bronsky gives us Sascha Naimann, a 17-year-old Russian immigrant living in Germany who is determined to kill her mother's murderer--who just happens to be her own step-father.
I hope you try one of these award-winning authors and experience Germany through their eyes.
