Ralf Rothmann, undisputed master of long and short prose, has written stories whose realism is driven by a yearning for the unexpected, full of humour and empathy. Stories that continue to echo long after you’ve turned the last page.
In these eight stories, Ralf Rothmann depicts turning points in life, both happy and dramatic, in an affecting and magically precise style. Whether we hear of the self-delusions of a dying Stasi officer, a misguided orgy on the Baltic coast, a love rekindled in a Japanese monastery, or the memory of snow: »After all it’s not this or that state that makes a life,« says one of the female protagonists. »It’s the transitions, like in music. Sometimes I think even death is just a change of chord.«
»With Shakespeare’s Chickens, Ralf Rothmann reveals himself to be a master of weightless pathos.« Hubert Spiegel, FAZ
»A new Rothmann is always an event.« Die Literarische Welt
Ralf Rothmann was born in Schleswig in 1953 and grew up in the Ruhr region. For his work, he has been awarded numerous prizes including the Heinrich-Böll-Preis 2005, the Max-Frisch-Preis 2006, the Kleist-Preis 2017, the Premio San Clemente 2018 (Spain) and most recently the Thomas-Mann-Preis 2023. His work Der Gott jenes Sommers received the Uwe-Johnson-Preis 2018 and the English translation of Im Frühling sterben was awarded the HWA Gold Crown for Historical Fiction (UK) 2018. Rothmann lives in Berlin.
Ralf Rothmann was born in Schleswig in 1953 and grew up in the Ruhr region. For his work, he has been awarded numerous prizes including the...
»I have always loved the rain – as long as I didn’t get wet. The world is more peaceful when it rains, I sit by the window quietly and listen as the downpour makes the foliage of the lime tree, the letterboxes and the empty bottles behind the bistro sing. I’d like to write as fluidly as that. The entire rue Delambre is expressed brilliantly, up to the farthest...
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»Fear is a man’s best friend« is the motto of Hotel of Insomniacs, Ralf Rothmann’s new volume of stories, and indeed it is often fear that helps his characters overcome difficulties. The...
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A child in the war: at the start of 1945, twelve-year-old Luisa Norff has to flee to the countryside with her mother and her older sister as the bombardment of Kiel has begun. The estate owned by...
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»An essential chapter in the history of the Federal Republic, a swan song to the lost generation of the seventies that oscillates between melancholy and furore,« wrote Matthias...
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