Greatest German-language novel 2023: Tonio Schachinger receives German Guide Prize for “Actual Age”

The German Guide Prize 2023 goes to Tonio Schachinger for his novel “Actual Age”. The German Guide Commerce Affiliation introduced this on Monday in Frankfurt.

With the German Guide Prize, the Guide Tradition and Studying Promotion Basis of the German Guide Commerce Affiliation honors the most effective German-language novel of the yr. The award is endowed with 25,000 euros.

Schachinger was already 4 years in the past, along with his debut “Not such as you” on the shortlist for the famend literary prize. The Coming-of-age novel “Actual Age” (Rowohlt Verlag) tells the story of highschool pupil Until, who attends an elite boarding college in Vienna. It’s concerning the disintegration of the household, friendships, past love. And it’s about gaming, as a result of Until’s puberty takes place largely on-line.

“Schachinger displays the political and social situations of the current with delicate irony: Brute power speaks from educated pupils. The world of laptop video games provides a spot of creativeness and freedom,” the jury mentioned in its assertion. The textual content offers with the query of the social place of literature in a narratively excellent and up to date approach.

Schachinger was born in 1992 born in New Delhi, India, studied German and language arts in Vienna and lives there at this time. Subsequent to him within the ultimate spherical have been Terézia Mora (“Muna or Half of Life”), Necati Öziri (“Father’s Mark”), Anne Rabe (“The Risk of Happiness”), Sylvie Schenk (“Maman”) and Ulrike Sterblich ( “Drifters”). This yr, a complete of 196 novels from 113 German-language publishers have been within the working.

In August, the seven-person jury introduced its pre-selection, the longlist comprising 20 titles, adopted in September by the shortlist with the six finalists. The German Guide Prize is taken into account one of the vital awards within the business and has been awarded since 2005. The prize is value a complete of 37,500 euros: the winner receives 25,000 euros, the opposite authors on the shortlist every obtain 2,500 euros. The guide prize is awarded by the Guide Tradition and Studying Promotion Basis of the German Guide Commerce Affiliation. Final yr, 124 publishers submitted 202 works. The prize then went to Kim de l’Horizon for the novel “Blood Guide”. (dpa, epd)