The Germans, as I've often noted, favor author- over book-prizes, and while the Man Booker-imitation German Book Prize wasn't the first to try to change the focus to an annual work, rather than a career, it quickly became the best-known.
The Wilhelm-Raabe-Literaturpreis got there earlier -- in 2000 -- but since they started off as a biennial prize they've only awarded it as often as the slightly later-starting (2005) German Book Prize; now annual, the €30,000 award is big-time -- and does pip the German Book Prize at least with the cash prize, if not reputation.
(Among previous Wilhelm-Raabe winners is Wolf Haas' The Weather Fifteen Years Ago -- certainly a winning selection -- as well as the just-out-in-English Imperium by Christian Kracht.)
They've now announced their shortlist -- and, rather boringly, it features only one title (36,9°, by Nora Bossong), that isn't also on the German Book Prize longlist .....
But, hey, maybe this really is the cream of the German crop this year.
They've now announced their shortlist -- and, rather boringly, it features only one title (36,9°, by Nora Bossong), that isn't also on the German Book Prize longlist .....
But, hey, maybe this really is the cream of the German crop this year.