Theory of Rain

Notes

Diaries, Notebooks & Conversations

General

Ralf Rothmann

Theory of Rain / Theorie des Regens

Notes

On the reliable order of the unexpected

»Really, writing is nothing but erasing one’s traces, again and again, from version to version, until the story tells itself.«

»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 streetlight, and I gaze at my life through the droplets on the windowpane as though through tiny, quickly...

Ralf Rothmann’s notes from fifty years: snapshots as personal as they are lyrical, as grim as they are humorous, from the memories of an author who has created many wonderful novels and stories. Here he shows us in just a few words what could reconcile us with the impositions of our environment and the time that is passing far too quickly: a poetic existence.

»With his powerful poetics, Ralf Rothmann is one of the most important German-language authors and he is possibly the most sensitive narrator of his generation.« Sandra Kegel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»[Rothmann] creates watercolours dabbed onto the paper, taking his willing readers along.« Eberhard Geisler, Frankfurter Rundschau

»Theory of Rain is more than just a collection of materials that haven’t made it into the published works. These brief sketches and essayistic texts are a kind of sensitive diary ...« Hilmar Klute, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»Ralf Rothmann makes peace with the world defiantly and tenderly.« Sylvie-Sophie Schindler, der Freitag

»Theory of Rain is a treasure trove; a book you could open on a random page and reliably find a surprising observation or an interesting episode.« Christoph Schröder, Deutschlandfunk Kultur

»[Rothmann‘s] notes as a reflection of a writer’s existence [are] a pleasurable and gainful read.« Holger Heimann, SR 2

»At the moment, I know of no book that is more enriching. … It is very fortunate for each of us, for his readers, whose perception of everyday life is heightened by Ralf Rothmann’s exceptional powers of observation.« Knut Cordsen, Bayerischer Rundfunk

»Theory of Rain is a godsend. Form, content and attitude find one another effortlessly in this book. A sentence stands for itself, a quotation, a scene, a thought – always poetic and inspiring.« Carsten Hueck, Deutschlandfunk

»Notes full of beauty and insight.« Jörg Magenau, rbbKultur

2023, 215 pages

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Diaries, Notebooks & Conversations

General

Ralf Rothmann

Author

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

Author

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...

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Year of Publication: 2025

Ralf RothmannYear of Publication: 2025

The Museum of Solitude

»Every true and luminous short story also casts a novel-length shadow”, Ralf Rothmann once wrote, and The Museum of Solitude provides the proof for this assertion. Whether he’s talking about the “shindig” held by a young boy who consoles his crying brother while their parents are away or about a lecturer who takes her mother to a nursing home with strange scratch marks on the doors,...

Year of Publication: 2022

Ralf RothmannYear of Publication: 2022

The Night under the Snow

Luisa is studying to become a librarian at university, which is housed in a former arms factory in Kiel. Elisabeth is working at the officers’ mess in the port and all she strives for is a...

Rights sold to:

Italy (Neri Pozza), Turkey (Yapi Kredi)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Hörbuch Hamburg)

Year of Publication: 2020

Ralf RothmannYear of Publication: 2020

Hotel of Insomniacs

»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...

Rights sold to:

Italy (Neri Pozza)

Year of Publication: 2018

Ralf RothmannYear of Publication: 2018

The God of that Summer

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...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Picador), Italy (Neri Pozza), Czech Republic (Argo), Croatia (Fraktura), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Kastaniotis)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Hörbuch Hamburg), German Book Club rights (Büchergilde Gutenberg)

Year of Publication: 2015

Ralf RothmannYear of Publication: 2015

To Die in Spring

To Die in Spring is the story of Walter Urban and Friedich »Fiete« Caroli, two seventeen-year-old farm hands from Northern Germany who are both forced into military service in February 1945....

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Picador UK; USA/Canada sublicense: FSG; English audiobook sublicense: Tantor), Spanish world rights (Libros del Asteroide), Catalan rights (L'Altra Editorial), Chinese simplex rights (Archipel Press), Portuguese rights (Sextante Editora), France (Denoël), Italy (Neri Pozza), Netherlands (Arbeiderspers), Denmark (Rosinante), Sweden (Thorén & Lindskog), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Poland (W.A.B.), Czech Republic (Argo), Slovakia (Premedia), Hungary (Magvetö), Romania (ART), Croatia (Fraktura), Serbia (Laguna), Slovenia (Goga), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Kastaniotis)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Finland (Atena), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Estonia (Hea Lugu), Kosovo / Albanian world rights (Buzuku)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Hörbuch Hamburg), German Entire Radio Reading (NDR)

Year of Publication: 2012

Ralf RothmannYear of Publication: 2012

Shakespeare’s Chickens

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...

Year of Publication: 2009

Ralf RothmannYear of Publication: 2009

Fire Doesn't Burn

Ralf Rothmann has written a novel about the delicate convergence of East and West, as well as a chronicle of erotic desire - a torrid love story.

Berlin, nearly 20 years after the fall of the...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), Arabic world rights (Kalima), Lithuania (Lithuania Writers Union Publishers)

Year of Publication: 2006

Ralf RothmannYear of Publication: 2006

Seashore with Deers

Love stories? Are there any other stories, asks the author.

Whether he writes about the distress of a 12-year-old girl who feels responsible for her family after the death of her mother, or...

Rights sold to:

Turkey (Metis)

Year of Publication: 2004

Ralf RothmannYear of Publication: 2004

Young Light

Ralf Rothmann’s narrative is held in his very own, poignant language which tells us about the last weeks of childhood, a childhood in the German Ruhrgebiet of the Sixties, the stillness of its...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Libros Del Asteroide), Russia (Fluid), Finland (Avain), Turkey (Metis), Azerbaijan (Alatoran)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Poland (Atut)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Lindhardt & Ringhof / Saga Egmont)

Year of Publication: 2003

Ralf RothmannYear of Publication: 2003

Heat

This novel of Ralf Rothmann is set in Berlin's Kreuzberg district, and starts off in a canteen that supplies its customers in West and East alike with convenience food.

It is here, in...

Rights sold to:

Croatia (Fraktura), Macedonia (Antolog)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Russia (Ast)

Year of Publication: 2000

Ralf RothmannYear of Publication: 2000

Milk and Coal

We find traces of the author’s childhood in this novel. It tells the story of a family at the end of the 1960s. The father works underground: »You only need an hour down there. Up to our waists in...

Rights sold to:

Sweden (Thoren & Lindskog), Serbia (Clio), Turkey (Yapi Kredi)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: France (Laurence Teper)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Book Club rights (Büchergilde Gutenberg), German Hardcover Sublicense (Klartext)

Year of Publication: 1991

Ralf RothmannYear of Publication: 1991

Bull

»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...

Rights sold to:

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Netherlands (de Arbeiderspers)