Ralf Rothmann

Ralf Rothmann (born 10 May 1953, in Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein) is a German novelist, poet, and dramatist. His novels have been translated into several languages, with Knife Edge (Messers Schneide), Young Light (Junges Licht), Fire Doesn't Burn (Feuer brennt nicht), To Die in Spring (Im Frühling sterben) and The God of that Summer (Der Gott jenes Sommers) being translated into English. The main subjects of his work are the bourgeois and proletarian realities of life in the Ruhr area (e.g., Stier, Wäldernacht, Milch und Kohle and Junges Licht) as well as Berlin (Flieh mein Freund, Hitze, Feuer brennt nicht), with an autobiographically colored focus on alienation, the attempt to escape these situations, and common solitude. With the major novels Im Frühling sterben, Der Gott jenes Sommers and Die Nacht unterm Schnee, Rothmann goes back to the time of the Second World War and explores the horrors for the individual. The five volumes of short stories Ein Winter unter Hirschen, Rehe am Meer, Shakespeares Hühner, Hotel der Schlaflosen and Museum der Einsamkeit complete the author's extensive oeuvre.

Works Messers Schneide (stories). 1986. - engl. edition as Knife Edge. New Directions, 1992. Kratzer und andere Gedichte (poems). 1987. Der Windfisch (story). 1988. Stier (novel). 1991. Wäldernacht (novel). 1994. Berlin Blues. Ein Schauspiel (play). 1997. Flieh, mein Freund! (novel). 1998. Milch und Kohle (novel). 2000. Gebet in Ruinen (poems). 2000. Ein Winter unter Hirschen (stories). 2001. Hitze (novel). 2003. Junges Licht (novel). 2004. - engl. edition as Young Light. Seagull Books, 2010. Rehe am Meer (stories). 2006. Vollkommene Stille (speech at the presentation of the Max Frisch Prize). 2006. Feuer brennt nicht (novel). 2009. - engl. edition as Fire Doesn't Burn. Seagull Books, 2012. Shakespeares Hühner (stories). 2012. Im Frühling sterben (novel). 2015. - engl. edition as To Die in Spring. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017. and Picador (Pan Macmillan), 2017. Der Gott jenes Sommers (novel). 2018. - engl. edition as The God of that Summer. Picador (Pan Macmillan), 2022. Hotel der Schlaflosen (stories). 2020. Die Nacht unterm Schnee (novel). 2022. Theorie des Regens (notes). 2023. Museum der Einsamkeit (stories). 2025

Awards

1986: for Kratzer 1992: 1992/1993: Stadtschreiber von Bergen 1996: 2001: Hermann-Lenz-Preis 2002: Kranichsteiner Literaturpreis 2003: Evangelischer Buchpreis 2004: Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize 2004: Rheingau Literatur Preis 2005: Heinrich-Böll-Preis 2006: Max Frisch Preis of the City of Zürich 2007: Erik-Reger-Preis 2008: Literaturpreis der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung 2008: Hans Fallada Preis 2010: 2013: Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis of the City of Bad Homburg 2014: 2016: Stefan-Andres-Preis 2017: Kleist Preis 2017: Gerty-Spies-Literaturpreis 2018: Premio San Clemente (Spain) 2018: Uwe Johnson Preis 2018: HWA Gold Crown for Historical Fiction (England) 2023: Thomas-Mann-Preis 2025: Kunstpreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen