Read All About It

If your knowledge of German literature doesn't get much further in the alphabet than G and H (Goethe, Grass, Hesse), a visit to www.litrix.de will prove literarily enlightening. The trilingual website (German, English and a third language that changes every year) introduces readers to a wide variety of new fiction, nonfiction and children's titles each month.

Financed by the German Cultural Foundation and run by the Goethe Institute, the site is intended to promote among foreign readers an appreciation of the works of contemporary German authors — a laudable goal, given that the land of the Dichter und Denker

(poets and thinkers) still translates twice as many books a year into German as it does from German into other languages. For those who don't know enough German to read the downloadable sample texts, litrix.de also offers specimen translations in English and Arabic; next year, the third language will switch to Chinese.

If your interest is piqued by one of the 30 new titles recommended by an expert jury of German literary critics each year, you can use an e-mail contact form to order it direct from the publisher. Those looking for a great read also shouldn't miss the website's online magazine, which nets suggestions by some of Germany's leading publishers. And the magazine's Panorama section features clear, concise academic articles on general aspects of Teutonic literature. Marburg University Professor Thomas Anz's short piece on post-reunification German lit, for instance, gives an overview of the different generations of authors at work since 1989, as well as the most important literary themes and forms of the period.

Whatever their focus, the book reviews, author profiles and general lowdown on Germany's literary scene should make you — as well as foreign editors and literary agents — hungrier for all things German. Tschuss!