What the literary spring promises

Outlook - What the literary spring promises

Salman Rushdie deals with the knife attack he suffered in a new book, Haruki Murakami publishes his first novel in six years. And Elke Heidenreich reflects on ageing. An overview of new literary releases in the first half of 2024.

Haruki Murakami: "The City and its Uncertain Wall"

After six years (and several shorter texts), perennial Nobel Prize for Literature contender Haruki Murakami is publishing his new novel. Just in time for his 75th birthday, the Japanese author is publishing the novel "The City and its Uncertain Wall" in January. In it, Murakami tells the story of a narrator who cannot let go of his thoughts of a girl with whom he once fell madly in love. She lives in a "walled city that can only be entered by those who leave their own shadow behind".

The publisher Dumont advertises: "A melancholy, tender and philosophical novel about lost love, self-discovery and the possibility of overcoming walls."

Salman Rushdie: "Knife"

Things will get exciting in April when Salman Rushdie launches his new book. In "Knife", the Indian-British writer tells the story of the attack of which he was a victim. In August 2022, he was attacked with a knife on an open stage during a reading in New York and seriously injured.

"Salman Rushdie survives the attack and holds the sharpest sword against his attacker: he processes this unimaginable act into world literature," writes the publisher Random House.

Isabel Allende: "The wind knows my name"

The new novel by Chilean-American author Isabel Allende will also be published in mid-April. In the historical saga "The Wind Knows My Name", the 81-year-old tells the "interwoven stories of two young people in search of family and home", writes Suhrkamp Verlag.

Among other things, it is about a boy who escapes from Nazi-occupied Austria to England on a Kindertransport in the 1930s.

News from Annie Ernaux and Abdulrazak Gurnah

In spring, further titles by Nobel Prize for Literature winner Annie Ernaux and Abdulrazak Gurnah will be published in German for the first time.

In "A Passion", Ernaux tells the story of an all-consuming affair with an "irritatingly impassive man", as Suhrkamp writes. Gurnah's "The Petrified Heart" is a coming-of-age novel about the young Salim, who lives in Zanzibar in the 1970s.

Crime novels by Grisham, Martin Suter, Stephen King and co.

Several top-class crime writers will be publishing new books in the coming months. John Grisham is releasing the sequel to his global bestseller "The Firm" in February with "The Abduction". Scottish author Val McDermid has written her seventh crime novel about cold-case investigator Karen Pirie, "The Gift of Lies". Stephen King, on the other hand, has written stories in the volume "Ihr wollt es dunkler".

Fans of Swiss author Martin Suter can look forward to a new story about the art detective Allmen in February. In "Allmen and Mr. Weynfeldt", he faces his first murder case. And Wolf Harlander has written "Partikel. Everywhere. Invisible. Tödlich", an eco-thriller about microplastics, which is due to be published in June.

Elke Heidenreich on ageing, Bell Hooks on childhood

In her new book, Elke Heidenreich addresses a topic that affects us all. In "Ageing", she reflects on her own ageing and the general question of how we can come to terms with it. Hanser Verlag writes: "Everyone wants to grow old, nobody wants to be old. The contradiction is absurd, the suffering is real."

US author Bell Hooks (1952-2021), on the other hand, takes a look at being young in her "Memories of a Childhood". Hooks became known as a feminist intellectual and thought leader. Suhrkamp Verlag is now publishing her account of growing up in the southern states in the 1950s.

Andrea Petković, Ilona Hartmann and Deniz Ohde

Andrea Petković has established herself as a voice in the literary public sphere in recent years. In "Zeit, sich aus dem Staub zu machen" (published in March), the 36-year-old tennis player deals with her retirement from professional sport.

Author Ilona Hartmann has become known on Twitter and as a journalist. In her second novel "Klarkommen", she tells the story of a group of young people who move to the big city - and find that life there is not as exciting as they had dreamed.

Deniz Ohde's new novel "Ich stelle mich schlafend" is also about disillusionment. The author, who was born in 1988, was nominated for the German Book Prize for her debut. The sequel now tells the story of Yasemin, who meets her childhood sweetheart Vito again after a long time, with whom she grew up in the same high-rise complex. "But then Vito reveals his inner self, which is threatening and empty," writes Suhrkamp Verlag, calling it the "story of a liberation".