This autumn brings three very different novels by established authors to our bookshelves, bound to feed the review pages and blogs for months: an epic novel by a renowned Iranian-German writer, a first novel by a bestselling author of short stories, and a new taboo-breaking book by one of Germany’s most controversial young authors.

 

 

Hanser Verlag

 

Renowned writer Navid Kermani is the author of an extraordinary novel out this autumn. Five years in gestation, Dein Name (‘Your Name’) is nothing short of an epic: 1232 pages of reflection on life itself – and on death. Kermani absorbs his family’s present and past, with his grandfather’s emigration from the Middle East to Germany at the novel’s core, and thereby weaves the European present and the Iranian past into an intricate tapestry of tales and voices. Born in Germany to Iranian parents, Kermani is one of Germany’s foremost thinkers in the field of religious and cultural affairs, and a writer of immense agility and range. He writes regularly for the main German broadsheets, as well as publishing essays, non-fiction books and books for children.

Kermani’s book The Terror of God is published this year in the UK by Polity Press.

 

 

 

Der Fall Collini
Ferdinand von Schirach
Piper Verlag

 

Ferdinand von Schirach has already made waves in the book world with his collections of short stories that arise from his experiences as a Criminal Defence Lawyer (Crime and Guilt, published in the UK by Chatto & Windus). These stories are perfectly formed pieces that combine suspense with reflection – on, as the titles suggest, judgement, guilt and responsibility – and hit humorous notes, too. So Schirach’s first foray into the longer form, with his novel Der Fall Collini (‘The Collini Case’), is much anticipated. Here, a young lawyer is obliged to defend a man who does not wish to be defended, who admits murder but refuses to give a motive, and begs the question: ‘What makes someone who has lived a guilt-free life suddenly turn to murder?’

 

 

 

Schoßgebete
Charlotte Roche
Piper Verlag

 

Charlotte Roche’s debut novel was a huge international bestseller – the controversial novel Feuchtgebiete (Wetlands) that shocked and delighted millions of readers with its open and graphic tale of female sexuality. In her new novel, Roche turns to the ‘taboo’ of marital sex, peeling back the layers of convention and repression to examine gender roles, a more ‘mature’ sexuality, and what happens when a chance event turns your world upside down.