Sasa Stanisic receives German Book Prize 2019 for "Herkunft" ("Origins") / Börsenverein honours the best German-language novel of the year / Award ceremony with 300 guests at the Frankfurt Römer

Frankfurt am Main (ots) - The winner of the German Book Prize 2019
is Sasa Stanisic for his novel "Herkunft" (Luchterhand).

Statement from the jury:

"Sasa Stanisic is such a good storyteller that he even distrusts
storytelling. Beneath each sentence in this novel the unavailable
origins lurk, which simultaneously drive the storytelling. These
origins only make themselves available as a fragment, a fiction and
as a toying with the story's possibilities. The author ennobles his
readers with his vast imagination and releases them from the
conventions of chronology, realism and formal unambiguity.
'Hesitation has never told a good story', he has his first-person
narrator say. With great humour, he counters the narratives of
historical misrepresentation with his own stories. 'Herkunft'
('Origins') is a portrait of a present that constantly re-tells
itself anew - with the result that a 'Self-Portrait with Ancestors'
becomes a novel about a Europe of life journeys."

The members of the jury for the German Book Prize 2019 are:

Petra Hartlieb (Hartliebs Bücher bookstore, Vienna), Hauke
Hückstädt, (Literaturhaus, Frankfurt am Main), Björn Lauer
(Hugendubel, Frankfurt), Jörg Magenau (independent literary critic),
Alf Mentzer (Hessischer Rundfunk), Daniela Strigl (literary scholar)
and Margarete von Schwarzkopf (author and literary critic).

The other novels that were shortlisted for the award are:

Raphaela Edelbauer, "Das flüssige Land" (Klett-Cotta), Miku Sophie
Kühmel, "Kintsugi" (S. Fischer), Tonio Schachinger, "Nicht wie ihr"
(Kremayr & Scheriau), Norbert Scheuer, "Winterbienen" (C.H.Beck) and
Jackie Thomae, "Brüder" (Hanser Berlin).

The Stiftung Buchkultur und Leseförderung des Börsenverein des
Deutschen Buchhandels (Foundation for Book Culture and the Promotion
of Reading of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association) is
awarding the German Book Prize 2019 to the best German-language novel
of the year to coincide with the start of Frankfurter Buchmesse. The
German Book Prize receives financial support from the Deutsche Bank
Stiftung (Deutsche Bank Foundation), and other partners include
Frankfurter Buchmesse and the city of Frankfurt am Main. The
television network Deutsche Welle supports the German Book Prize in
its media activities both at home and abroad.
www.deutscher-buchpreis.de/en/.

Press photo for download (available from approx. 8.30 pm):
www.boersenverein.de/pressefotos

Contacts for the media:
Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels e.V.
Thomas Koch, Director of Press and Public Relations
Tel. +49 (0) 69 1306-293, e-mail: t.koch@boev.de
Cathrin Mund, PR Manager
Tel. +49 (0) 69 1306-292, e-mail: mund@boev.de

Original-Content von: Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, übermittelt durch news aktuell