Berlin Books To Look Out For Right Now

It’s a lifelong question – what draws us to Berlin? For internationals, it’s often mythologised that the city calls us here in some way, because of its history or hedonism, its green spaces or underground places. Others are pushed here, due to war, bigotry or persecution. Berlin Babel is a new short story collection edited by Katy Derbyshire. Over 14 short stories in eight different languages, writers from Syria, Turkey, Russia, Germany, Italy, China, the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Spain and India consider what makes Berlin home. The mix of translated voices and complex perspectives makes it a compelling read. The launch of Berlin Babel is happening at 19:30 on September 8 at Ballhaus Berlin.

You might not imagine football and literature to have the most natural crossover, but Hertha-fan Damiano Benzoni is proving us wrong. Did you know that Berlin has almost 400 football clubs? That’s 400 stories of loss, loyalty and love of the game. Through his personal photography and anecdotes, Benzoni dives into the vast tapestry beyond the city’s two main teams, Hertha and Union. Even if you’re not into football, this book provides an interesting angle through which to explore the smoky pubs, kebab shops and quirky traditions that make up local football tradition – and what that says about Berlin as a whole. The Derbyless City will be published in English on September 14.

Earlier this year, Hilda Hoy’s Mothertongue hit Berlin’s bookshelves and she’s been keeping up momentum ever since, with events at ivallan’s and Chapters. Hoy’s story explores the identity-shaping nature of language by drawing upon her experience of otherness as a bilingual child raised in Taiwan by a Taiwanese mother and Canadian father. As an adult who lived in different places, she was forced to face the reality of losing Mandarin when her mother was diagnosed with dementia and lost the ability to speak. The resulting memoir is a “subtle, yet incredibly tender” (Jenna Tang) exploration of grief, reconnection and finding your voice between different worlds.

Not knowing what to do with your arts degree and ending up in Berlin have been known to go hand in hand. J. Joseph’s novel takes this concept and runs with it. Protagonist Charli finds herself getting swept up by a glamorously handsome, mercurial musician and dropped into the centre of Berlin. Emulating the life of the person she did her research project on – Romy Haag, David Bowie’s former lover – Charli is brought on a self-destructive, party-crazed journey under the spell of Alexander Geist. Lean Cat Savage Cat is “Riotous and raunchy… a salacious romp of breathtaking self-invention and spectacular self-destruction”, Service95.

The Sleeping Land by Berlin/LA-based author Ella Alexander came out last year and it’s one of those books that flew under the radar when it should have been turning the head of every reader in Berlin. It’s an under-explored gem of literary fiction. Speaking of unexplored gems, the story is all about a group of academic archaeologists carrying out a dig at a remote cave in the heart of the Siberian wilderness in the 90s. Surrounded by eerie, looming forest and in the face of world-changing discoveries, the true motivations of George (the glory-hound head of the excavation) reveal themselves to be selfish at best. Alongside a wild-ride plot, The Sleeping Land has the kind of casual narrative voice that articulates the deep thoughts you struggle to share, the interpersonal dynamics too specific for most authors to mention, let alone explore through such concise, clever language. It’s funny too. The stargazing, solo-smoking main character, Valerie, observes complex and bizarre goings-on with an honest, dry wit. Trust us, you’ll read this one in days, if not hours, and with a read-to-believe shocker of an ending, you’ll no doubt read it more than once. By then, you’ll be asking yourself over and over: what the hell does it mean to be human anyway? And how alone are we, really?

Good Girl is a coming-of-age story for anyone who has ever tried to outrun their past while figuring out what kind of person they want to become. Nineteen-year-old Nila, the daughter of Afghan refugees, finds her tribe in Berlin’s artistic underground, moving between techno clubs, warehouses, bad romance, philosophy, photography, and the strange freedom of staying up all night. The city promises reinvention, but for Nila, its past is never far away; its war-scarred buildings and buried racial tensions press up against the life she’s trying to make for herself.

I Keep My Shadow Light is a novel about moving to and belonging in Berlin. It follows the story of an aspiring journalist and writer from the UK landing in Berlin and navigating the bureaucracy, language barrier and cultural challenges of moving to a new city. The novel’s sharp satirical voice carries the protagonist, Maeve, through relationships, learning German, trying to find a job and how to navigate both her own identity and the challenges of life in Berlin.

Time and place play a role in every novel, but few play with the concepts so drastically as Berlin-based writer Siouxzi Connor’s novel, Your Body of Water. A love story in four acts, Connor’s dark autofictional novel traces past romances, lives and loves through the lens of mythological retelling and hydrofeminism. The novel takes place in four distinct places, next to four distinct rivers located in the Blue Mountains of Australia (where she grew up), Berlin, Lisbon and Paxos in Greece. Connor weaves notions of desire, trauma, sex, beauty and most of all, love, through genre, time and space, bringing readers an enthralling story that’s both symbolically and emotionally rich.