german authors

hi, i am lookng to buy my nan who is originally from austria some german literature books on-line, but need to know the best german authors. she likes romantic novels and crime novels. any advise would be much appreciated, many thanks

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Hi, not too hot on German romance (!) but if you%26#39;re looking for crime I%26#39;d really recommend some Friedrich Durrenmatt (sorry about the lack of accents). He%26#39;s actually Gernan-speaking Swiss rather than German as such but I%26#39;m sure your nan wouldn%26#39;t mind.

The best of his books imho, and in fact one of the best books I%26#39;ve ever read full stop, is Das Versprechen (The Promise) - more of a psychological thriller than a whodunnit but it really gets under your skin.

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Go to www.amazon de, the German website of Amazon. They give you the same type of info. you get on amazon here in this country. You can order the books from there.

Among my favorite authors are Heinrich Boell, German translations of the Swedish writer Henning Mankell. The latter writes good %26quot;Krimis%26quot; (crime novels). A recent serious, but very interesting book I read was %26quot;Meines Vater Vaters Land%26quot; by Wibke Bruhns. She is a German journalist and researched her father%26#39;s life. He was excecuted by Hitler in connection with the 20 July 1944 attack on Hitler. Very well written, but not light fare. But might be of interest to someone who grew up in Austria/Germany during or just after WWII.

Boell wrote many books.

If you grabndmother is into German movies, get her a video CD subscription to Netflix. I have ordered all sort of German movie from them, among them %26quot;Good by Lenin%26quot; (very funny), %26quot;The weeping Camel%26quot; (kind of wholsome). They are in german, with English subtitles. I pay $9.90 a month.

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A romantic story: Ulrich Plenzdorf, %26#39;Die Legende von Paul und Paula%26#39;

A crime novel: Max Frisch, %26#39;Stiller%26#39;

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Two popular German writers of (well-written) romances are Utta Danella and Sandra Paretti. You%26#39;ll find loads by both on Amazon.de. Rosamund Pilcher is also very popular over there.

Germans read a lot of thrillers in translation too(like Mankell). Donna Leon%26#39;s series about a police detective in Venice, translated from the American (as they say) is very popular over there(and with me!). The German series actually numbers the cases: %26quot;Commissario Brunettis x-ter Fall%26quot; there are currently about a dozen. Leon has lived in Venice for years so the descriptions of the city and what it is like to live there are fascinating. She is inspired by news items from local papers for her plots.

Ingrid Noll is a contemporary German thriller writer, also very good. Böll (Boell) Frisch, Dürrenmatt are all (modern)literary classics, popular on university German courses.

If you use amazon.de, it%26#39;s worth knowing that as in amazon.uk you can buy second hand (often only damaged stock/remaindered) and have them posted abroad if it says %26quot;internationaler Versand%26quot; in the notes.

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thanks very much for all your help!! has anybody read illuminati by dan brown?? is this any good??

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Silvia Kaffke:

Messerscharf (2000)

Herzensgut (2002)

Totenstill (2005)

Renate Kampmann:

Die Macht der Bilder Rezension (2001)

Im Schattenreich (2004)

Fremdkörper (2005)

Both of them write brilliant crime fiction. Their novels should be read in the correct order (see date of publication) They aren%26#39;t really well known but I and all my friends love their books very much and can hardly wait for more books to be published.

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Illuminati is the German version of Dan Brown%26#39;s Da Vinci Code. It is an excellent book.

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It is a little bit late for an answer, but I only got here, because alexh from Hamburg wrote such nice things on my books...

But if your aunt likes German crime stories, then Jacques Berndorf is a must - he %26quot;invented%26quot; the famous %26quot;Eifel%26quot;-Krimis, which also suits to the normal topic of this forum, because they also can be used as travelguides to one of the most beautiful areas in Germany which a lot of people do not know because they focus on Bayern, Berlin and Heidelberg...

A little information for alexh and his frieds: my 4th book, called %26quot;Blutleer%26quot; will be published in April 2006.

Liebe Gruesse

Silvia

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Hi, gunnergirl,

I know I don%26#39;t make much friends by bashing a best selling author, but I think Dan Brown is the most overrated author of the past few years. I really like main stream and I love stories on world conspiracys (like the wonderful 3 %26quot;Illuminatus!%26quot; books by Shea and Wilson - mind the difference), but %26quot;Illuminati%26quot; was a book I stopped reading after about 20 pages because it was awfully bad written. First I thought that maybe the German translation was bad, but I heard from people who read it in English that it is really bad written. A lot of Germans who maybe never read any book before say that it is best book of the world - I hope they will read more books to find out what quality is.

Regards

Silvia

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If your husband is into the esoteric and philosophical, then perhaps something by Hermann Hesse would be to his liking. I especially enjoyed %26quot;Das Glasperlenspiel%26quot; and also %26quot;Steppenwolf%26quot;, but I don%26#39;t claim to have understood either one of them.