Books by Daniel Kehlmann
“Inspired by the life of filmmaker G.W. Pabst, The Director is a brilliant and unsettling exploration of art, compromise, vanity and moral collapse. The novel examines what happens when an artist confronts authoritarian power and begins rationalising proximity to it. Daniel Kehlmann is extraordinary at capturing ambiguity. The novel never allows easy moral distance. Instead, it forces us to confront how ego, fear and opportunism can slowly erode ethical certainty.” Read more...
The Best Fiction Books: The 2026 International Booker Prize
Troy Onyango, Publisher
“This a book about a period of European history which was riven by the plague and pestilence. So there’s a very deep historical resonance between this book and the present. For all of that, it is an incredibly funny book. It is a book that brings you this a playful, wicked avatar and takes you through this really bloody and dark period in German history. Almost on every page there is a moment of courtly pomposity and hypocrisy and backstabbing and skulduggery; it’s a really, really hilarious, rich comedy that takes you right into the dark heart of the plague-era Germany.” Read more...
The Best Fiction in Translation: The 2020 International Booker Prize
Ted Hodgkinson, Art Historians, Critics & Curator
Interviews where books by Daniel Kehlmann were recommended
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1
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree
by Shokoofeh Azar, translated by Anonymous -
2
The Adventures of China Iron
by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre -
3
Tyll
by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin -
4
Hurricane Season
by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes -
5
The Memory Police
by Yōko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder -
6
The Discomfort of Evening
by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, translated by Michele Hutchison
The Best Fiction in Translation: The 2020 International Booker Prize, recommended by Ted Hodgkinson
The Best Fiction in Translation: The 2020 International Booker Prize, recommended by Ted Hodgkinson
Broaden your reading horizons. Much of the most exciting, playful and inventive new fiction can be read in translation, says Ted Hodgkinson, chair of the judging panel for the 2020 International Booker Prize. Here he talks us through their shortlist of six novels.
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1
Taiwan Travelogue: A Novel
by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated by Lin King -
2
The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran
by Shida Bazyar, translated by Ruth Martin -
3
She Who Remains
by Rene Karabash, translated by Izidora Angel -
4
The Director: A Novel
by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin -
5
On Earth As It Is Beneath
by Ana Paula Maia, translated by Padma Viswanathan -
6
The Witch: A Novel
by Marie NDiaye, translated by Jordan Stump
The Best Fiction Books: The 2026 International Booker Prize, recommended by Troy Onyango
The Best Fiction Books: The 2026 International Booker Prize, recommended by Troy Onyango
Translated fiction “expands not only our literary horizons, but also our moral and emotional imaginations,” explains Troy Onyango—the writer, editor and judge for the 2026 International Booker Prize. He introduced us to the six novels that made the shortlist, including this year’s “formally inventive” winner and a “razor sharp” book about a “mediocre witch.”
