By Alice Dundon with The Culture Trip
Germany has an impressive literary repertoire, with world-class book fairs, prizes, some Nobel-prize winning literature and great novels coming from the nation. Each year a range of new releases hits the shelves and online stores, and to help you find the best English-translated new releases and editions, here are the 7 German books coming out in 2018 that you won’t need the German language to enjoy.
1. Franz Kafka: The Best Works
Franz Kafka is widely regarded as one of the major figures in 20th-century literature. The German-speaking Bohemian Jewish novelist wrote a wide collection of critically acclaimed work. This new ebook, Franz Kafka: The Best Works, compiles his greatest writings, including work from his novels, novellas, short stories and parables. It includes famous works like Amerika, The Trial, ‘The Metamorphosis,’ ‘A Hunger Artist,’ and many more. This English-friendly edition has been professionally formatted for ease of use.
2. Greetings from Angelus: Poems
This is a bilingual collection of poetry from Gershom Scholem, the world renowned Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism scholar. This volume of Scholem’s work contains dark, lucid political poems about Zionism and assimilation, uses a similar style related to German and Jewish philosophers, Walter Benjamin, Hans Jonas, and more. The volume collects poems spanning from 1915 to 1967, shedding a light on the importance of poetry throughout Scholem’s life. The collection is translated by Richard Sieburth, who acknowledges the relevance and power Scholem’s work still has today. This new edition makes a German classic accessible to an English speaking audience.