Book tips fall 2023
Family novels
© Miljan Živković / Adobe Stock
Anyone who loves books never goes to bed alone! So that there is no rude awakening, we have found the best new books of the season for you. Have fun with our favorite family novels for fall 2023!
Aisha Abdel Gawad – Between Two Moons
In her debut novel, the American Aisha Abdel Gawad describes what it was like to grow up as a Muslim in Brooklyn after the turning point of September 11th: The twins Amira and Lina have to survive a sweaty month of Ramadan in Bay Ridge, the large Muslim community. When her brother gets out of prison, the difficult balance the two of them try to balance between family and life on the outside is overturned. (T: Henrietta Zeltner-Shane, 416 p., Blumenbar)
Vigdis Hjorth – My Mother’s Truths
An almost 60-year-old daughter returns from abroad and tries to get closer to her estranged mother. The award-winning author Vigdis Hjorth has been writing about dysfunctional families for a long time, although little has been translated into German. This has caused debate in her home country of Norway: What is autofictional literature allowed to do? Because Hjorth’s family felt literary denigration. No wonder: her novels burn like salt in an open wound. (T: Gabriele Haefs, 400 p., p. Fischer)
Dana Vowinckel – Waters in a Ziplock
In Germany people like to complain that Anglo-Saxon literature deals with difficult topics in a much more straightforward manner, is easier to read and still lacks depth. Well, this debut from Dana Vowinckel fulfills all of those desires. Is it because she, like her heroine, grew up between Berlin and Chicago? In any case, Vowinckel talks without faltering about what is probably the most complicated topic in German literature: Jewish identity. It’s about 15-year-old Margarita, who lives in Berlin with her father, a prayer leader in a synagogue. This summer she is supposed to travel from her annual visit to her grandparents in the USA to visit her mother in Israel, even though she has no relationship with her at all, as she disappeared shortly after Margarita’s birth. On this journey, Margarita learns a lot about her roots, and she is not the only one who will grow up in this wonderful book. (362 p., Suhrkamp Nova)
Valery Tscheplanowa – The Horse in the Well
Valery Cheplanova is actually an actress, and not just any actress. She recently stepped in at the Salzburg Festival – as Nathan the Wise. Her novel, which tells the story of four women, is just as extraordinary. Tanja, Nina, Lena and Walja. Four generations, each absorbed in their own way by this juggernaut of a country that was the Soviet Union, that is Russia. A sparkling debut, full of linguistic peculiarities and unique observations. (192 p., Rowohlt Berlin)
Maxim Biller – Mom Odessa
Maxim Biller’s mother Rada also wrote for BRIGITTE. A column about a Christmas carp slaughter gone wrong is legendary, as are her occasional calls to the newsroom. In this novel, Biller creates a monument to her, even if it is a fictionalized story. These are his novels, which often have his family as a theme. But the love for the people in it shines with an honest flame, just like his prose. (240 pages, Kiepenheuer & Witsch)