This post, written for the inaugural German Literature Month, detailed the ways in which I found my German literature in translation. 10 years later a significant update is due. You’ll soon see why. So where do I scout out my translated German literature these days?

New Books in German remains my first point of reference, even though I am missing the biannual magazine that brought untold joy when it dropped through the letter box. The upside of the wholly digital resource, however, is that there is more space for translated literature as the Autumn 2021 selection proves.

A pile of possibilities for GLM XI

Publisher catalogues These are those I zoom in on as soon as they are published. Let’s start with established (i.e older than 10 years) publishers, the staples on my shelves.

  • NYRB Classics continue to curate an impressive library. Their 2021 catalogue is a veritable banquet with new editions/translations from Heimito von Doderer, Thomas Mann, Anna Seghers, Adalbert Stifter (review forthcoming), and Robert Walser. 2022 will be quieter but there’s plenty from 2021 to keep me busy for a while.
  • My shelves would be much poorer without the Dürrenmatts, Lernet-Morenias, Perutzes, Roths, Schnitzlers and Zweigs from Pushkin Press. In 2013 Pushkin’s Children’s Books was founded, which has since published a fine capsule collection of children’s and YA G-Lit, both classic and contemporary including Wilhelm Busch, Cornelia Funke, Erich Kästner. With more to come, I think.
  • We are not leaving this section of the post without a reference to the flock of seagulls on my shelves. Actually that should be flocks because the amount of G-Lit in the Seagull Books German and Swiss Lists is simply extraordinary. I never browse these without adding to my wishlist. (In fact I just added two more writing this paragraph!)

Then there are the new kids on the block, publishers who have launched in the last decade.

  • Aspal Press was founded in 2014, and has two imprints; Prime for contemporary bestsellers in translation, and Vintage, for classics. With three translations from German out of 5 on their current Vintage list, this is a page to keep an eye on
  • Naked Eye Publishing A not for profit press founded in 2015. Admittedly there’s not much German literature on their list, but this year they have published two titles by Kathrin Schmidt; You’re Not Dying, winner of the 2009 German Book Prize, and very recently a collection of her short stories, It’s Over, Don’t Go There. Someone at the company has a good eye, and that feels quite promising.
  • Rixdorf Editions is a Berlin-based press formed in 2017 which is committed to bringing unfairly neglected texts of the German Empire to a contemporary English-language readership. Stay tuned for an interview with the translator and director of the company, James J Conway later this month.
  • Scribe UK has been publishing in the UK since 2013, in which time they have produced a fine shelf of German literature, including titles from Hans Fallada, Lutz Seiler’s German Book Prize winning Kruso, and the Nino Haratischvili’s The Eighth Life (one of my personal top 10 of all time.) They have also published a goodly number of non-fiction titles with a leaning towards medicine for the layman. Problems with your digestive system? Read Guilia Enders’s Gut. Folk with immune system disorders or bladder issues might want to check out the releases coming in 2022.
  • V&Q Books, an imprint of German publisher Volland and Quist, launched by translator Katy Derbyshire in 2020 to bring remarkable writing from Germany to the UK and US markets. Titles will have been written in Germany, though not always in German. There are currently 7 titles on the V&Q list. I’ve read 6, and they really are all remarkable. New titles have so far been released in batches on the 1st March or 1st October. I’d like that to continue because suddenly these formerly ordinary dates become very exciting ones indeed!
  • World Editions, launched 2013, came to my attention primarily through their catalogue of Dutch literature. They have now broadened their horizons, taking modest steps with German literature. Only three titles on their list, Pierre Jarawan’s The Storyteller (wondrous), Julia von Lucadou’s The High-Rise Diver (disconcerting) and New Year, the new Juli Zeh. (Zeh has been a firm favourite of mine for years now). A fourth, another by Jarawan will be published in early 2022. (I can’t wait!) Is this a sign of more exciting contemporary German literature to come?

Time to stake out some crime and thrillers. Actually it’s a simple operation for there’s plenty of choice.

  • Bitter Lemon Press, set up in 2003 to bring high quality thrillers and contemporary crime fiction from abroad. Check out the German and the Swiss lists.
  • Head of Zeus, founded 2012. Thriller fans, look no further, for this is the publisher of Sebastian Fitzek. Also a detective series by Andreas Pflüger, featuring a blind detective.
  • Maclehose Press (and parent company Quercus) do fine lines in both literary and crime fiction from German. On the latter pile are Romy Hausmann’s standalone thrillers and Oliver Bottini’s Black Forest Investigations.
  • Do you prefer cozy crime? Then Nightshade and Moonlight, established earlier this year by US translator Rachel Hildebrandt, is for you. While it will not limit itself to German translations, the first two titles – Andrea Instone’s The Missing Professor and Günter Wendt’s The Last Ferry Left at Five are exactly that.
  • For a series featuring a sexy, sassy, state prosecutor, look no further than Simon Buchholz’s Chastity Riley series, published by Orenda Books, established 2014.
  • And finally, two historical crime fiction series (my favourite kind of crime) that I highly recommend. Still working my way through Volker Kutscher’s Babylon Berlin series, published by Sandstone Press (founded 2012) and wishing that Cay Rademacher would turn his Inspector Stave series (published by Arcadia Books, relaunched 2013) into something longer than a trilogy!

The amazing thing about writing this post is discovering just how many publishers have started up since the GLM #1 in 2011. No wonder as a reader, I feel that German Literature in translation in the UK is thriving. Although I have tried, I have not been able to keep up with the 2021 UK releases. Does this mean that Brexit angst is unfounded? Or could 2021 be a one-off boom year with publishers simply catching up on themselves following the lockdown of 2020? Time alone will tell.