Ralf Rothmann

Ralf Rothmann (born 10 May 1953, in Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein) is a German novelist, poet, and dramatist. His novels have been translated into several languages, with Knife Edge (Messers Schneide), Young Light (Junges Licht), Fire Doesn't Burn (Feuer brennt nicht), To Die in Spring (Im Frühling sterben) and The God of that Summer (Der Gott jenes Sommers) being translated into English. The main subjects of his work are the bourgeois and proletarian realities of life in the Ruhr area (e.g., Stier, Wäldernacht, Milch und Kohle and Junges Licht) as well as Berlin (Flieh mein Freund, Hitze, Feuer brennt nicht), with an autobiographically colored focus on alienation, the attempt to escape these situations, and common solitude. With the major novels Im Frühling sterben, Der Gott jenes Sommers and Die Nacht unterm Schnee, Rothmann goes back to the time of the Second World War and explores the horrors for the individual. The four volumes of short stories Ein Winter unter Hirschen, Rehe am Meer, Shakespeares Hühner and Hotel der Schlaflosen complete the author's extensive oeuvre.

Works

Messers Schneide (stories). 1986. ISBN 3-518-38133-4 - engl. edition as Knife Edge. New Directions, 1992. ISBN 0-8112-1204-1
Kratzer und andere Gedichte (poems). 1987. ISBN 3-518-02657-7
Der Windfisch (story). 1988. ISBN 3-518-40129-7
Stier (novel). 1991. ISBN 3-518-22364-X
Wäldernacht (novel). 1994. ISBN 3-518-39082-1
Berlin Blues. Ein Schauspiel (play). 1997. ISBN 3-518-39082-1
Flieh, mein Freund! (novel). 1998. ISBN 3-518-45505-2
Milch und Kohle (novel). 2000. ISBN 3-518-39809-1
Gebet in Ruinen (poems). 2000. ISBN 3-518-41168-3
Ein Winter unter Hirschen (stories). 2001. ISBN 3-518-45524-9
Hitze (novel). 2003. ISBN 3-518-41396-1
Junges Licht (novel). 2004. ISBN 3-518-41640-5 - engl. edition as Young Light. Seagull Books, 2010. ISBN 9781906497545
Rehe am Meer (stories). 2006. ISBN 3-518-41825-4
Vollkommene Stille (speech at the presentation of the Max Frisch Prize). 2006. ISBN 978-3-518-06850-2
Feuer brennt nicht (novel). 2009. ISBN 3-518-42063-1 - engl. edition as Fire Doesn't Burn. Seagull Books, 2012. ISBN 9780857420473
Shakespeares Hühner (stories). 2012. ISBN 978-3-518-42248-9
Im Frühling sterben (novel). 2015. ISBN 3-518-42475-0 - engl. edition as To Die in Spring. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017. ISBN 9780374278144 and Picador (Pan Macmillan), 2017. ISBN 9781509812868
Der Gott jenes Sommers (novel). 2018. ISBN 978-3-518-42793-4 - engl. edition as The God of that Summer. Picador (Pan Macmillan), 2022. ISBN 9781529009859
Hotel der Schlaflosen (stories). 2020. ISBN 978-3-518-42960-0
Die Nacht unterm Schnee (novel). 2022. ISBN 978-3-518-43085-9
Theorie des Regens (notes). 2023. ISBN 978-3-518-22545-5