Sasha Marianna Salzmann awarded Hermann-Hesse-Literaturpreis 2022

This year's Hermann-Hesse-Literaturpreis, endowed with €15,000, has been awarded to author and playwright Sasha Marianna Salzmann for Im Menschen muss alles herrlich sein (Glorious People, previously longlisted for the German Book Prize 2021).

The novel that depicts times of upheaval, from the »meat grinder time« of perestroika to present-day Germany, describes how systems disintegrate and people are swept along by the maelstrom of events. It follows four biographies from the 1970s to 2017 and explores the inextricable entanglement of the generations, across time and space – which makes the novel, published in 2021, especially topical.

The jury states: »In captivating, empathetic images, Salzmann penetrates into the heart of the dilemmas of migrant and post-migrant biographies – a literary search that is as unconventional as it is brilliant.«

The award ceremony will be held on November 4, 2022 in Karlsruhe. Previous recipients of the prize include Hans-Ulrich Treichel, Thomas Hettche, Adolf Muschg and Ann Cotten (Förderpreis).
 

Praise for Glorious People:

»[Salzmann] writes in a broad, timelessly epic style. There is a quiet sovereignty here that gives one great hope that we are reading one of the next great German storytellers.« Marie Schmidt, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»The multi-perspectivity of the events does not result in a mere alternation of focus, but in overlapping perspectives, as if Salzmann were using a revolving stage to present the events. And the further the book progresses, the more this revolving stage seems to be picking up speed.« Andreas Platthaus, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»Sasha Marianna Salzmann’s novel, convincing in its intense and richly pictorial language, offers a different version of the narrative, a perspective beyond clichés and what has been read hundreds of times before.« Norma Schneider, neues deutschland

»Rarely has there been such a comprehensive and personal vivid description of how the end of the USSR continues to affect people to this day.« Irmtraud Gutschke, der Freitag

»The sensually concrete language, which does justice to the abundance of impressions and feelings at all times, is worthy of praise. Unconventional, allegorically charged images recur and make an impression ... Glorious People deserves to be on the longlist of the German Book Prize.« Wolfgang Schneider, Der Tagesspiegel

»Salzmann unravels the individual biographies. The perspective switches between the characters and generations, the reader’s empathy follows along; conflicts are intensified by the fact that we can understand all of them in the misfortune that has befallen them through no fault of their own and in their futile efforts to live a dignified life.« Ulrich Seidler, Berliner Zeitung

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