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)»Once you have gone for freedom, nothing can ever happen to you. Never.«
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 anguish and the brightness of consolation:
»Once you have gone for freedom, nothing can ever happen to you. Never.«
»Ralf Rothmann is on his best way to become a classic of German contemporary literature. Such as no other author of his generation, those born around 1950, he masters the art of captivating the aura of a region and its predominant mentality. One of the themes which he cherishes most, although it is not tied to any specific locality or time, is the end of childhood, this enlightened, flickering, seemingly endless stretching phase of transition that ends in a glimpse. We are able to see the beauty of everyday occurrence. Making them visible, this is Ralf Rothmann’s magnificent art.« Hubert Spiegel, FAZ
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,...
Theory of Rain
»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...
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)
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)