From “Power Bottom” to “Empusion”: We take a look at the best books of 2023.
1. Benjamín Labatut – “Maniac”
After his bestseller “The Blind Light,” Benjamín Labatut presents another brilliant novel: “Maniac” portrays the mathematical genius John von Neumann, who with “Oppenheimer” became the midwife of the atomic bomb, the physicist Paul Ehrenfest and his desperate search for meaning, and the Korean Go player Lee Sedol, who was defeated by an artificial intelligence. In this reflection on man and machine, Labatut is such an outstanding narrator, as if he could look into the past and the future.
2. Necati Öziri – “Father’s Mark”
Author and dramaturg Necati Öziri writes about a family marked by an absent father. This debut novel rightly ended up on the shortlist for the German Book Prize 2023 – it is painful. And painfully good.
3. Olga Tokarczuk – “Empusion”
In a sanatorium in the mountains before the First World War, men talk about the future of the world. Sound familiar? The Nobel Prize winner for literature Tokarczuk has reinterpreted “The Magic Mountain” as a horror novel, so to speak. A rogue who thinks evil of it.