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...
»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 scattering prisms.«
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.
»[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
»[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...
Persons
Ralf Rothmann
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...
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
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,...
The Night under the Snow
Italy (Neri Pozza), Turkey (Yapi Kredi)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Hörbuch Hamburg)
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...
Italy (Neri Pozza)
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...
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)
To Die in Spring
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)
Shakespeare’s Chickens
In these eight stories, Ralf Rothmann depicts turning points in life, both happy and dramatic, in an affecting and magically precise...
Fire Doesn't Burn
Berlin, nearly 20 years after the fall of the...
English world rights (Seagull), Arabic world rights (Kalima), Lithuania (Lithuania Writers Union Publishers)
Seashore with Deers
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...
Turkey (Metis)
Young Light
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)
Heat
It is here, in...
Croatia (Fraktura), Macedonia (Antolog)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Russia (Ast)
Milk and Coal
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)
Bull
Bull, Ralf Rothmann’s 1991 debut novel, tells the story of Kai Carlsen, which takes from Berlin to Ruhr area, where the damage caused by mining is etched into the houses facades and...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Netherlands (de Arbeiderspers)
Knife Edge
USA (New Directions)