Exploring Germany: 10 books from the Land of poets and thinkers

A list of books to read from Germany

Let us start with what is arguably the most famous piece of German literature. A deeply moving and utterly heartbreaking novel set in the trenches of WW1.

In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the ‘glorious war’. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young ‘unknown soldier’ experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches. And one by one the boys begin to fall …

Named one of the “Top 100 Books of All Time,” Berlin Alexanderplatz is considered one of the most important works of the Weimar Republic and twentieth century literature.

Franz Biberkopf, pimp and petty thief, has just finished serving a term in prison for murdering his girlfriend. He’s on his own in Weimar Berlin with its lousy economy and frontier morality, but Franz is determined to turn over new leaf, get ahead, make an honest man of himself, and so on and so forth. He hawks papers, chases girls, needs and bleeds money, and gets mixed up in spite of himself in various criminal and political schemes. This is only the beginning of our modern everyman’s multiplying misfortunes.

On his third birthday Oskar decides to stop growing. Haunted by the deaths of his parents and wielding his tin drum, Oskar recounts the events of his extraordinary life; from the long nightmare of the Nazi era to his anarchic adventures in post-war Germany.

The Tin Drum is a key text in European magic realism. The author himself named this style “broadened reality”, and he won the won the Nobel Prize of 1999 for literature.

Berlin, 1940. The city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: the bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm, and the unassuming couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels receive the news that their beloved son has been killed fighting in France. Shocked out of their quiet existence, they begin a silent campaign of defiance, and a deadly game of cat and mouse develops between the Quangels and the ambitious Gestapo inspector Escherich. When petty criminals Kluge and Borkhausen also become involved, deception, betrayal and murder ensue, tightening the noose around the Quangels’ necks.

A  vivid portrait of life in wartime Berlin and a gripping tale of an ordinary man’s determination to defy the tyranny of Nazi Germany

On a beautiful spring day, a small village in Western Germany wakes up to an omen: Selma has dreamed of an okapi. Someone is about to die. Luise’s mother struggles to decide whether to end her marriage. An old family friend, known only as the optician, tries to find the courage to tell Selma he loves her. Only Sad Marlies remains unchanged, still moping around her house and cooking terrible food. But when death finally comes, the circumstances are outside anyone’s expectations.

For a heartwarming story about the absurdity of life and death, a bittersweet portrait of German village life and the wider world that beckons beyond, maybe this one is the one to choose.

From Germany’s #1 bestselling author Juli Zeh comes the first real Covid19 novel, which takes place in the middle of lockdown in spring 2020 and subtly describes the social and very private consequences of the pandemic.

Fleeing stay-at-home orders in the big city, Dora and her dog move to the countryside to sit out the pandemic. She knows that Bracken, a village in the middle of nowhere, isn’t the idyll most city dwellers dream of, but she’s desperate for space and a change of scene. The quaint old house she’s saved up for needs work, weeds have taken over the yard, and her skinhead neighbor fits all the stereotypes. As Dora tries to keep her own demons in check, unexpected things start happening all around her. Juli Zeh’s epic new novel explores our present predicaments, biases, weaknesses, and fears, but above all it reveals the strengths that come to light when we dare to be human.

If you’re looking for the immigrant perspective on Germany, this could be the one to choose.

For thirty years, Hüseyin has worked in Germany, taking every extra shift and carefully saving, even as he provides for his wife and their four children. Finally, he has set aside enough to buy an apartment back in Istanbul – a new centre for the family and a place for him to retire. But just as this future is in reach, Hüseyin’s tired heart gives up. His family rush to him, travelling from Germany by plane and car, each of his children conflicted as they process their relationship with their parents, and each other. Reminiscent of Bernardine Evaristo or Zadie Smith, Djinns portrays a family at the end of the 20th century in all its complexity: full of secrets, questions, silence and love.

Richard has spent his life as a university professor, immersed in the world of books and ideas, but now he is retired, his books remain in their packing boxes and he steps into the streets of his city, Berlin. Here he discovers a new community – a tent city, established by African asylum seekers. Hesitantly, getting to know the new arrivals, Richard finds his life changing, as he begins to question his own sense of belonging in a city that once divided its citizens into them and us.

Jenny Erpenbeck won the International Booker prize in 2024 for the new book Kairos, exploring the relationship between a young woman and an older man set in 1986 Berlin against the backdrop of a changing world as the GDR begins to crumble. I considered putting that one on the list, but ultimately find that Go, Went, Gone sounds more interesting.

The Short End of the Sonnenallee, is a satire set, literally, on the Sonnenallee, the famed “boulevard of the sun” in East Berlin. Within this boulevard lives Michael, an adolescent who faces daily ridicule whenever he steps out of his apartment building and comes into view of the observation platform on the West side. “Look, a real Zonie. Can we take your picture?” Hopelessly in love with the most beautiful girl on the street, Michael is batted away in favour of the Western boys who are free to cross the border. What chance does Michael have, and how much trouble will he get into by pursuing her?

Laugh-out-loud funny and unabashedly silly, Brussig’s novel follows the bizarre, grotesque quotidian details of life in the German Democratic Republic.

A lonely boy named Bastian finds a strange book that draws him into the beautiful but doomed world of Fantastica. Only a human can save this enchanted place by giving its ruler, the Childlike Empress, a new name. But the journey to her tower leads Bastian through lands of dragons, giants, monsters, and magic, and once Bastian begins his quest, he may never return.

This epic work of the imagination has captured the hearts of millions of readers worldwide since it was first published. Its special story within a story is an irresistible invitation for readers to become part of the book itself. And I personally adored the movie as a child. This is just one of the multiple options, if you’re looking for German fantasy. (I might make a list of those at one point. Let me know if you’d be interested in that!)