Kim de l’Horizon gets the book award and shaves his skull

Handbags are lucky bags. Anyone who has ever rummaged through such a thing or has observed another person doing this knows that: from apples to notes, everything imaginable tends to emerge from the depths of the little bag. Razors, however, are probably only carried by a few people in their go-out bags. Maybe that’s a mistake, because crowds can be enthralled with this object these days: used in public, a safety razor can bring in huge applause, for example at a book award ceremony – Kim de l’Horizon just experienced this in Frankfurt.

Kim de l’Horizon was honored for the best German-language novel of the year on Monday. The German Book Prize is awarded every year on the eve of the Frankfurt Book Fair. For the first time since 2010, when Melinda Nadj Abonji received the award, the award goes to a person from Switzerland. Kim de l’Horizon, born in 1992, grew up as Dominik Holzer in Ostermundigen and, after studying German and film, attended the Literature Institute in Biel.

That’s what Wikipedia says. According to the publisher’s website, however, Kim de l’Horizon was born on Gethen in 2666 and is currently pursuing a degree in witchcraft. That means: There is a person who eludes conventional categories. Kim de l’Horizon sees himself as non-binary, so he identifies himself neither as a man nor as a woman.

Provoked and excited

The debut, which won awards in Frankfurt, cannot be pigeonholed either. “Blood Book”, according to the cover a novel, is in many ways a piece of autofiction. A fluid narrator-I searches for a language for his identity that does not fit into any grid, but is nevertheless woven into a family structure: the copper beech from which the title is given is in the garden of «Grossmeer», the grandmother who is gradually disappearing into dementia; the book is dedicated to the “sea” in turn, to the mother.

The narration is sometimes in long sentences, sometimes in notes or dialogues, sometimes in German, sometimes in English and in any case in a way that convinced the jury: Kim de l’Horizon’s novel unfolds an “urgency and literary innovative power” that is provocative and inspiring work, said the jury spokeswoman Miriam Zeh in the Kaisersaal of the town hall.

Kim de l’Horizon is also on the shortlist for the Swiss Book Prize and was one of the favorites in Frankfurt, but went on stage without a prepared speech and after the first hugs only said “Wow!” out. Nevertheless, in the following minutes something was expressed. Suddenly, Kim de l’Horizon – green glittering sequined skirt, purple top, large necklace, distinctive mustache – agreed to a song in the hall. “Nightcall”, published in 2010 by the French electro musician Kavinsky, seems to have been written for the book prize in 2022: “There’s something inside you / It’s hard to explain / They’re talking about you, boy / But you’re still the same”.

sign against hatred

While the audience reacted rather bewildered to this performance, they let themselves be ripped out of their seats by the next act. “This prize isn’t just for me,” said Kim de l’Horizon, pulling a razor out of her glittering green purse and beginning to shave her head. When only a few brown tufts remained on the skull, Kim de l’Horizon expressed his admiration for the courage and strength of the Iranian women. When the jury selected “Blood Book”, a sign was also set: “against hate, for love, for the fight of all people who are oppressed because of their bodies”.

The sign has arrived in the hall, in any case the audience rose to a standing ovation. Whether it will reach Iran is questionable, but the radical gesture powerfully underscored Kim de l’Horizon’s own message. Whatever I look like, and whatever you think, I am what I want. Whether with a skirt or a moustache, whether with glitter, with a bald head or with everything together: I’m still the same.