Valerie Fritsch and Julia Jost Nominated for the Austrian Book Prize 2024
News03.09.2024
Suhrkamp authors Valerie Fritsch and Julia Jost have both been nominated for awards at this year's Austrian Book Prize. Fritsch has made the longlist for the main prize with her novel Lemon, while Jost is on the shortlist for the prize for best debut for Hide and Seek.
Fritsch's gripping tale of a son’s attempt to free himself from an abusive mother is one of ten titles on the longlist, with the shortlist set to be announced on 9 October 2024. Previous winners include Clemens J. Setz, Friederike Mayröcker and Eva Menasse. Jost has made it straight to a shortlist of three, and the judges had the following to say about their decision: »You might think this is just another story set in a village in Carinthia, but you never think that while you’re reading it. The weave of the plot is at once too sinister and too over the top for that. The narrator too original, a plucky 11-year-old who doesn’t feel comfortable in her body of a girl but would much rather be a boy. … Alert and awake, this young girl takes in her stuffy surroundings … and discovers love, with the daughter of the Bosnian caretaker. Jost is sure in her tone, and also sure of how to make this tone flicker between political incisiveness, a deep compassion for her characters, despite everything, and a joy in slight exaggerations.«
The prize is jointly administered by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service, and Sport, the Hauptverband des Österreichischen Buchhandels, and the Arbeiterkammer Wien, and serves to recognize the quality and independence of Austrian literature, and to raise its profile throughout the German-speaking world. There are two prize categories, the main prize and the debut prize. Together, the award is endowed with €45,000.
For more information on Lemon or Hide and Seek, please contact the rights manager for your region.
Fritsch's gripping tale of a son’s attempt to free himself from an abusive mother is one of ten titles on the longlist, with the shortlist set to be announced on 9 October 2024. Previous winners include Clemens J. Setz, Friederike Mayröcker and Eva Menasse. Jost has made it straight to a shortlist of three, and the judges had the following to say about their decision: »You might think this is just another story set in a village in Carinthia, but you never think that while you’re reading it. The weave of the plot is at once too sinister and too over the top for that. The narrator too original, a plucky 11-year-old who doesn’t feel comfortable in her body of a girl but would much rather be a boy. … Alert and awake, this young girl takes in her stuffy surroundings … and discovers love, with the daughter of the Bosnian caretaker. Jost is sure in her tone, and also sure of how to make this tone flicker between political incisiveness, a deep compassion for her characters, despite everything, and a joy in slight exaggerations.«
The prize is jointly administered by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service, and Sport, the Hauptverband des Österreichischen Buchhandels, and the Arbeiterkammer Wien, and serves to recognize the quality and independence of Austrian literature, and to raise its profile throughout the German-speaking world. There are two prize categories, the main prize and the debut prize. Together, the award is endowed with €45,000.
For more information on Lemon or Hide and Seek, please contact the rights manager for your region.