Awards: German Book Prize; Chicago Review of Books Shortlists

Archipel by Inger-Maria Mahlke has won the 2018 German Book Prize. The judges wrote: "The archipelago lies at the outermost edge of Europe; the setting is the island of Tenerife, a nucleus of colonial history and of the history of 20th-century European dictatorships. Inger-Maria Mahlke writes about the present and back to 1919 in a precise and cogent manner. The narrative centres around three families from different social classes, fractured and wounded by Spanish history. Yet it is the dazzling details above all that make this novel such an impressive affair. Through its language, it allows us to experience everyday life, a damaged landscape--and even the light--as though with our own senses. The author's eye for the intricate bifurcations of family and social relationships is fascinating."

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The nonfiction shortlist for the 2018 Chicago Review of Books award consists of:

  • High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing by Ben Austen (Harper)
  • The Leopold and Loeb Files: An Intimate Look at One of America's Most Infamous Crimes by Nina Barrett (Agate Publishing) [Barrett is the owner of Bookends & Beginnings bookstore in Evanston, Ill.]
  • Betwixt-and-Between: Essays on the Writing Life by Jenny Boully (Coffee House Press)
  • Small Animals: Parenthood in the Age of Fear by Kim Brooks (Flatiron Books)
  • Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side by Eve L. Ewing (University of Chicago Press)
  • Night Moves by Jessica Hopper (University of Texas Press)

The poetry shortlist for the 2018 Chicago Review of Books award consists of:

  • If They Come for Us by Fatimah Asghar (One World)
  • Queer Black Hoe by Britteney Black Rose Kapri (Haymarket Books)
  • The Undressing by Li-Young Lee (Norton)
  • Citizen Illegal by José Olivarez (Haymarket Books)
  • Monument: New and Selected Poems by Natasha Trethewey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • House of McQueen by Valerie Wallace (Four Way Books)
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