German critics best-list, January 2013

       The SWR-Bestenliste, where thirty leading German literary critics weigh in on the new publications every month, is out for January 2013, with the Handke-Unseld correspondence taking first place (with a respectable vote-total too, not like in some months); see the Suhrkamp foreign rights page. (The current to-do around Suhrkamp (see my previous mention) may well have something to do with the favorable light in which this (admittedly significant) collection is being judged.)
       Noteworthy also: several re-translations of classics and/or older Russian novels make it into the top ten, as well as a collection of ballads. (Not exactly a ringing endorsement of contemporary German fiction on display here .....)