The best ways to order books online with a clear conscience Do you like buying books – but don’t always have time for a leisurely stroll around your local independent bookshop? Do you need to send book gifts around the country? Do you sometimes need a specific book really, really urgently? You might think your …
Two sisters, a dysfunctional family, and a bit of romance. Helen MacCormac on Caroline Wahl and her debut novel, 22 Bahnen I work for Literaturhaus Kassel and get to invite amazing writers to talk about their books and the ideas that inspire them. If you have never heard about “Literaturhäuser” before, you can read Susan …
By Sophie Lau Julia Engelmann is an incredible actor, poet, and singer. Her work delves into a lot of the preoccupations of living in the modern world and uses accessible vocabulary that can be understood by German learners of all levels. This is one of the reasons I’m so drawn to her poetry when developing …
A round-up by Katy Derbyshire In the German-speaking world it’s not just autumn leaves that rain down as the days get shorter – literary awards come thick and fast as well. They tend to be national or regional and a lot of them are named after dead white men. Here’s a little run-down of 2023’s …
By Katy Derbyshire This is a beautiful book combining a short satire by everyone’s favourite German 20th-century writer, reflections by one of my favourite 21st-century German writers, and lashings of typographical ginger beer. Like me, Sharon Dodua Otoo read a bit of Böll for her German A-Level. In her case, it was his short story …
By Annie Rutherford This piece was originally commissioned (in German) for the exciting Trans|Droste project, where you can find English, Arabic, French, Farsi, Kurmancî and Turkish translations of the work of the 19th-century poet Annette von Droste Hülshoff, including by Annie Rutherford. I am writing this wrapped in a blanket on a day I have …
Teresa Präauer: Kochen im falschen Jahrhundert A review by Katy Derbyshire Seeing as this is an old-school blog, I must start with a full disclosure: ten years ago I went Dutch with Teresa Präauer, drinking beer, Fernet Branca and pastis. It was a delightful evening, cementing my view of the Austrian author as a very …
By Katy Derbyshire I haven’t done a write-up of the Frankfurt Book Fair for a few years, and this time was a little different; after two significantly smaller fairs dominated by Covid, this year’s was bigger and very much about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Amid the horror and helplessness over events in Israel and Palestine, focusing …
If you’re a former fan of Love German Books, you might know what to expect here: news, reviews, random thoughts and gossip on books written in German. I wrote the blog for ten years from 2008 on, then ran out of steam. Now, though, it is here at V&Q Books in a more collaborative form. …
Katy Derbyshire talks to Karosh Taha about her writing, the novel In the Belly of the Queen, and hopes for the future. Katy: Hello Karosh – where are you answering these questions right now? Karosh: I’m in Zaxo, where I’m researching my third novel. Katy: Do you have a special writing place? Karosh: I don’t …