Klein, Raulff, Blumenbach Win Leipzig Prizes

Georg Klein (© by juergen-bauer.com)

By Siobhan O’Leary

The 2010 Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse (Leipzig Book Fair Prize) for fiction, non-fiction and translation were announced last week. Five titles per category were selected for the longlist by seven editors and literary critics. As reported by the Goethe-Institut, (which also supplied the descriptions below) this year’s winners were:

For fiction: Georg Klein, for Roman unserer Kindheit(Rowohlt), the fantastic and at times frightening story of a group of children in a 1960s housing complex in southern Germany.

For non-fiction: Ulrich Raulff, for his Kreis ohne Meister. Stefan Georges Nachleben. Eine abgründige Geschichte (C. H. Beck).

For translation: Ulrich Blumenbach for Unendlicher Spass, his translation of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch).

Literaturport offers a selection of recorded readings from each of the 15 nominated titles.