German Crime Writing

Introduction by J. Madison Davis | FICTION:"Forty-three-year-old woman seeking..." by Lisa Lercher

Introduction: "German Crime Writing," J. Madison Davis

Soccer field illustration
Photo by Ingo Meironke

The Frankfurt Book Fair is considered one of the most important annual events—maybe the most important—in international publishing, and the German book market is among the largest in the world. Even though a major German media company, Bertelsmann AG, owns the world's largest publisher, the Random House group, and non-German authors are readily available in German translation, few German crime writers are translated into the American market. German-language crime writing, however, is vigorous and various, with leavening from the different outlooks of Germany's internal regions; Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein; the minority German areas of Belgium (which has a German-speaking parliament in one region), Poland, Denmark, Italy; and several enclaves in other nations. Crime writing in the German language is vitally creative in the twenty-first century and poised to become a major influence on crime writing around the world. The following section includes four country surveys, two short stories, and a note on the remarkable BoKAS archives in Bonn. – J. Madison Davis

J. Madison Davis is the author of eight mystery novels, including The Murder of Frau Schütz, an Edgar nominee, and Law and Order: Dead Line, which was an e-book best-seller. He has also published seven nonfiction books and dozens of short stories and articles. His column on international crime writing has been appearing in WLT since 2004, and in 2008 he was elected president of the International Association of Crime Writers.

From World Literature Today 85, no. 3

Current Issue
May 2011 Issue

May/June 2011

Featuring German-language crime fiction, women's soccer literature and a fascinating interview with Danish novelist Carsten Jensen.

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Table of Contents

SPECIAL SECTION: German Crime Writing
Guest edited by J. Madison Davis

  • Introduction, J. Madison Davis, guest editor
  • FICTION: Lisa Lercher, "Forty-three-year-old woman seeking..."
  • ESSAY: Beatrix Kramlovsky, "Show Your Face, oh Violence"
  • ESSAY: Almuth Heuner, "Germany's Crime and Mystery Scene"
  • FICTION: Nina George, "The Light in the West"
  • ESSAY: Hughes Schlueter, "The Grand Duchy Strikes Back"
  • ESSAY: Paul Ott, "Murder in the Alpenglow: Swiss Crime Writing in the German Language"
  • ESSAY: Thomas Przybilka, "A Resource for Lovers of Crime Writing: The Bonn Archive of Secondary Crime Writing Literature"

SPECIAL SECTION: World Cup/World Lit 2011
Guest edited by John Turnbull

  • Introduction, John Turnbull, guest editor
  • INTERVIEW: John Turnbull, "A Conversation with Nalinaksha Bhattacharya"
  • FICTION: Nalinaksha Bhattacharya, "Hem and Football" an excerpt
  • POETRY: Mona Nicole Sfeir, "Laws of the Game (adapted from FIFA 2010-11)"
  • INTERVIEW: Sandra Kingery, "A Conversation with Ana María Moix"
  • ESSAY: Jennifer Doyle, "Soccer, Art and Desire"
  • INTERVIEW: John Turnbull, "A Conversation with Elísabet Jökulsdóttir"
  • ESSAY: Clarice Lispector, "Armando Nogueira, Soccer, and Me (Poor Thing)"

EDITOR'S NOTE

LETTERS

NOTEBOOK

  • WLT Online Book Club: The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Alina Bronsky
  • Author Profile: Jonas Hassen Khemiri
  • Czesław Miłosz Centennial
  • City Profile: Tallinn, Estonia

POETRY

  • Raquel Chalfi, "Double Exposure in the Black Forest"

Q&A: WLT INTERVIEWS

WEB EXCLUSIVES: MARITIME READING

WORLD LITERATURE IN REVIEW

OUTPOSTS: Norwich, Norfolk

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