The winner will be announced on 17 October before the Frankfurt Book Fair begins. The novel Trottel will be published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch on 8 September.
The Czech-German writer tells the story of a native Czech protagonist starting out in Prague after the Soviet invasion. After a grotesque first experience with love, unfinished studies, a boring office job and an encounter with the “Teutonic horde”, he moves to East Berlin. He immerses himself in the political underground and eventually discovers his passion for Rammstein.
The nominees were both established authors or lesser-known ones addressing the big questions of our time, such as origins, identity and forms of our coexistence.
Find out more about the book here.