Generally -- no, overwhelmingly -- the Germans prefer author- to book-prizes: they'd rather honor a life's work over specific works.
But seeing the success of the Man Booker Prize they launched an imitation-Man Booker a decade ago, the Deutscher Buchpreis -- and they've now announced the 20-title-strong longlist for this year's prize (selected from 167 novels, submitted by 110 publishers -- alas, in overzealous imitation of the Man Booker they too do not reveal what those submitted titles actually were, so we have no idea what worthy titles weren't even in the running).
Quite a few of the longlisted authors have had books published in English translation, including Jenny Erpenbeck (Visitation, etc.), Alina Bronsky (Broken Glass Park, etc.), Ilija Trojanow (The Collector of Worlds, etc.), Clemens J. Setz, and Rolf Lappert.
I haven't seen/read any of these titles -- and while there are several I'd like to see, the one I am most curious about is definitely Die Erfindung der Roten Armee Fraktion durch einen manisch-depressiven Teenager im Sommer 1969 (by Frank Witzel); see the Matthes & Seitz publicity page.
The shortlist will be announced 16 September; the winner will be announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair, on 12 October.
Quite a few of the longlisted authors have had books published in English translation, including Jenny Erpenbeck (Visitation, etc.), Alina Bronsky (Broken Glass Park, etc.), Ilija Trojanow (The Collector of Worlds, etc.), Clemens J. Setz, and Rolf Lappert.
I haven't seen/read any of these titles -- and while there are several I'd like to see, the one I am most curious about is definitely Die Erfindung der Roten Armee Fraktion durch einen manisch-depressiven Teenager im Sommer 1969 (by Frank Witzel); see the Matthes & Seitz publicity page.
The shortlist will be announced 16 September; the winner will be announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair, on 12 October.