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2022

Prize winner

The jury has decided: The winner of the German Book Prize 2022

Blutbuch

Prize winner 2022

Blutbuch

The narrator of "Blutbuch" does not identify as either male or female. Raised in a shabby Swiss suburb, they have escaped the narrow structures of their origins and now live contentedly in their non-binary body and own sexuality in Zurich. But then their grandmother develops dementia and the "I" begins to grapple with the past. An act of liberation from the things we carry forward unasked: gender, trauma and class.

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Justification of the jury

“With tremendous creative energy, the non-binary narrator of Kim de l’Horizon’s novel ‘Blutbuch’ (‘Blood Book’) searches for a language of their own. What narratives exist for a body that eludes conventional notions of gender?

The fixed point of the narrative is Kim’s own grandmother – ‘Großmeer’ (literally ‘great sea’) in Bernese German – in whose ocean Kim risked drowning as a child and which they now swim free of through writing.

The form of the novel is in constant motion. Every linguistic attempt, from vivid scenes to passages of essay-like memoir, reveals an urgency and literary innovation that challenged and inspired the jury.”

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2022

Shortlist

The novels nominated for the German Book Prize 2022

Dschinns
Nebenan
Lügen über meine Mutter
Trottel
Blutbuch
Spitzweg

2022

Longlist

The novels nominated for the German Book Prize 2022

Dschinns
Nebenan
Lügen über meine Mutter
Freudenberg
Auf See
Trottel
Aufruhr der Meerestiere
Blutbuch
Ein simpler Eingriff
Wilderer
Geschichte eines Kindes
Rombo
Dagegen die Elefanten!
Spitzweg
In Dschungeln. In Wüsten. Im Krieg.
153 Formen des Nichtseins
Kangal
Phlox
Eine Liebe in Pjöngjang
Ein Sommer in Niendorf