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On the shortlist for the German Book Prize 2022: author Fatma Aydemir
Photo:
Jens Kalaene / picture alliance / dpa
The six finalists for the German Book Prize have been nominated: Fatma Aydemir ("Dschinns"), Kristine Bilkau ("Next Door"), Daniela Dröscher ("Lies about my mother"), Jan Factor ("Idiot"), Kim de l 'Horizon (»Blutbuch«) and Eckhart Nickel (»Spitzweg«), as the jury announced in Frankfurt.
»An artistic necessity«
The nominees reflect the thematic and stylistic diversity of contemporary German literature, said jury spokeswoman Miriam Zeh.
The six titles on the shortlist convinced the jury with their aesthetic uniqueness.
»They have one thing in common: artistic absoluteness.« The jury viewed a total of 233 titles.
Jan Factor is the only one who has been on the shortlist before, in 2010 with "Georg's worries about the past or in the kingdom of Prague's sacred scrotum gimmick".
Factor is the oldest author, born in 1951;
It's harder to say who is the youngest: Fatma Aydemir was born in 1986, for Kim de l'Horizon the publisher gives 2666 as the year of birth.
The German Book Prize has been awarded since 2005 and is considered one of the most important awards in the industry.
The winner receives 25,000 euros, the other authors on the shortlist each receive 2,500 euros.
In 2021, the prize went to Antje Rávik Strubel for her novel »Blaue Frau«.
The winner for 2022 will be announced on October 17, at the start of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
According to an evaluation by the Germanist Elias Kreuzmair, 18 percent of the previous shortlist titles have been published by Suhrkamp-Verlag.
This time the house goes away empty-handed, but Kiepenheuer + Witsch are represented with two titles.
hpi/feb/dpa