Thomas Kunst on the Shortlist for the German Book Prize 2021
News20.09.2021
Thomas Kunst has been shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2021 with his novel Zandschow.
From the jury statement: »In the throes of a life crisis, Bengt Claasen ends up in a provincial town in north-eastern Germany, where people with rebellious fantasies defy a reality that is not well-disposed towards them. They have fashioned their village into Zanzibar, their pond into an ocean, and their alternative world with enchantingly absurd rituals. Zandschow, often as catchy as a piece of music, also exudes freedom through its formal radicalism. Politically charged, it also breaks with any heaviness of discourse by defying any limitations placed on its play with reality and language. A bitter, magically coded family story is juxtaposed with the escape into an utopia, and yet: this book lets you breathe more freely.«
Since 2005, the German Book Prize is presented to the best German-language novel of the year by the Foundation of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association on the eve of Frankfurt Book Fair. The Prize is intended to draw international attention to authors writing in German, to reading and to the medium of the book itself and is endowed with 37,500 Euros.
The winner of the German Book Prize will be announced on October 18, 2021.
For more information please visit Thomas Kunst's Foreign Rights Website or contact the respective Rights Manager.
From the jury statement: »In the throes of a life crisis, Bengt Claasen ends up in a provincial town in north-eastern Germany, where people with rebellious fantasies defy a reality that is not well-disposed towards them. They have fashioned their village into Zanzibar, their pond into an ocean, and their alternative world with enchantingly absurd rituals. Zandschow, often as catchy as a piece of music, also exudes freedom through its formal radicalism. Politically charged, it also breaks with any heaviness of discourse by defying any limitations placed on its play with reality and language. A bitter, magically coded family story is juxtaposed with the escape into an utopia, and yet: this book lets you breathe more freely.«
Since 2005, the German Book Prize is presented to the best German-language novel of the year by the Foundation of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association on the eve of Frankfurt Book Fair. The Prize is intended to draw international attention to authors writing in German, to reading and to the medium of the book itself and is endowed with 37,500 Euros.
The winner of the German Book Prize will be announced on October 18, 2021.
For more information please visit Thomas Kunst's Foreign Rights Website or contact the respective Rights Manager.