German literature

Boll, Heinrich (1971). The Clown. New York: New American Library. - Boll's 1963 book caused controversy for its negative portrayal of the Catholic Church.

*Doblin, Alfred (2019) Berlin Alexanderplatz. London: Penguin. - First written in 1929, Berlin Alexanderplatz is the great novel of Berlin life: inventing, styling and recreating the city as reality and dream; mimicking its movements and rhythms; immortalising its pubs, abattoirs, apartments and chaotic streets. From the gutter to the stars, this is the whole picture of the city. As a Jew, Doblin fled Germany after the Reichstag Fire.

Grass, Gunter (2004). The Tin Drum. London: Vintage. - Grass was a former member of the SS and his 1959 book is written from the point of view of an inmate of a mental asylum covering the horrors of Nazi Germany.

*Keun, Irmgard (2019). The Artifical Silk Girl. London: Penguin Classics. - First written in 1932 and became a best seller in Weimar Germany, Keun's explores a dazzling portrait of roaring Weimar Berlin in the eyes of a young women. Keun's novels were banned by the Nazis

*Isherwood, Christopher (1998). Goodbye to Berlin. London: Vintage. - Written by Christopher Isherwood, and published in 1939, who lived in Berlin in the late 1920s and early 1930s. His book re-lives his experiences and evokes the glamour, sleaze, excess and repression of Berlin society.

*Mann, Thomas (1996). The Magic Mountain. London: Vintage Books. - First written in 1924, Mann epitomised the liberal attitudes towards culture in the Weimar Republic. Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929. The Magic Mountain explores themes about deep contradictions in a capitalist life.

Remarque, Erich Maria (1996). All Quiet on the Western Front. London: Vintage. - Written in 1929 by Remarque, a German soldier on the Western Front. This novel highlighted the horrors of war.