{{Short description|German novelist, poet and dramatist}} {{BLP sources|date=November 2023}} thumb|Ralf Rothmann, 2023 '''Ralf Rothmann''' (born 10 May 1953, in Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein) is a German novelist, poet, and dramatist. His novels have been translated into several languages, with '''Knife Edge''' (''Messers Schneide''), '''Young Light''' (''Junges Licht''), '''Fire Doesn't Burn''' (''Feuer brennt nicht''), '''To Die in Spring''' (''Im Frühling sterben'') and '''The God of that Summer''' (''Der Gott jenes Sommers'') being translated into English. The main subjects of his work are the bourgeois and proletarian realities of life in the Ruhr area (e.g., ''Stier'', ''Wäldernacht'', ''Milch und Kohle'' and ''Junges Licht'') as well as Berlin (''Flieh mein Freund'', ''Hitze'', ''Feuer brennt nicht''), with an autobiographically colored focus on alienation, the attempt to escape these situations, and common solitude. With the major novels ''Im Frühling sterben'', ''Der Gott jenes Sommers'' and ''Die Nacht unterm Schnee'', Rothmann goes back to the time of the Second World War and explores the horrors for the individual. The five volumes of short stories ''Ein Winter unter Hirschen'', ''Rehe am Meer'', ''Shakespeares Hühner'', ''Hotel der Schlaflosen'' and ''Museum der Einsamkeit'' complete the author's extensive oeuvre.
== Works == * ''Messers Schneide'' (stories). 1986. {{ISBN|3-518-38133-4}} - engl. edition as ''Knife Edge''. New Directions, 1992. {{ISBN|0-8112-1204-1}} * ''Kratzer und andere Gedichte'' (poems). 1987. {{ISBN|3-518-02657-7}} * ''Der Windfisch'' (story). 1988. {{ISBN|3-518-40129-7}} * ''Stier'' (novel). 1991. {{ISBN|3-518-22364-X}} * ''Wäldernacht'' (novel). 1994. {{ISBN|3-518-39082-1}} * ''Berlin Blues. Ein Schauspiel'' (play). 1997. {{ISBN|3-518-39082-1}} * ''Flieh, mein Freund!'' (novel). 1998. {{ISBN|3-518-45505-2}} * ''Milch und Kohle'' (novel). 2000. {{ISBN|3-518-39809-1}} * ''Gebet in Ruinen'' (poems). 2000. {{ISBN|3-518-41168-3}} * ''Ein Winter unter Hirschen'' (stories). 2001. {{ISBN|3-518-45524-9}} * ''Hitze'' (novel). 2003. {{ISBN|3-518-41396-1}} * ''Junges Licht'' (novel). 2004. {{ISBN|3-518-41640-5}} - engl. edition as ''Young Light''. Seagull Books, 2010. {{ISBN|9781906497545}} * ''Rehe am Meer'' (stories). 2006. {{ISBN|3-518-41825-4}} * ''Vollkommene Stille'' (speech at the presentation of the Max Frisch Prize). 2006. {{ISBN|978-3-518-06850-2}} * ''Feuer brennt nicht'' (novel). 2009. {{ISBN|3-518-42063-1}} - engl. edition as ''Fire Doesn't Burn''. Seagull Books, 2012. {{ISBN|9780857420473}} * ''Shakespeares Hühner'' (stories). 2012. {{ISBN|978-3-518-42248-9}} * ''Im Frühling sterben'' (novel). 2015. {{ISBN|3-518-42475-0}} - engl. edition as ''To Die in Spring''. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017. {{ISBN|9780374278144}} and Picador (Pan Macmillan), 2017. {{ISBN|9781509812868}} * ''Der Gott jenes Sommers'' (novel). 2018. {{ISBN|978-3-518-42793-4}} - engl. edition as ''The God of that Summer''. Picador (Pan Macmillan), 2022. {{ISBN|9781529009859}} * '' Hotel der Schlaflosen'' (stories). 2020. {{ISBN|978-3-518-42960-0}} * '' Die Nacht unterm Schnee'' (novel). 2022. {{ISBN|978-3-518-43085-9}} * '' Theorie des Regens'' (notes). 2023. {{ISBN|978-3-518-22545-5}} * '' Museum der Einsamkeit'' (stories). 2025 {{ISBN|978-3-518-43230-3}}
== Awards == {{div col}} *1986: {{ill|Märkisches Stipendium für Literatur|de}} for ''Kratzer'' *1992: {{ill|Mara-Cassens-Preis|de}} *1992/1993: Stadtschreiber von Bergen *1996: {{ill|Literaturpreis Ruhr|de}} *2001: Hermann-Lenz-Preis *2002: Kranichsteiner Literaturpreis *2003: Evangelischer Buchpreis *2004: Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize *2004: Rheingau Literatur Preis *2005: Heinrich-Böll-Preis *2006: Max Frisch Preis of the City of Zürich *2007: Erik-Reger-Preis *2008: Literaturpreis der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung *2008: Hans Fallada Preis *2010: {{ill|Walter-Hasenclever-Literaturpreis|de}} *2013: Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis of the City of Bad Homburg *2014: {{ill|Kunst- und Kulturpreis der deutschen Katholiken|de}} *2016: Stefan-Andres-Preis *2017: Kleist Preis *2017: Gerty-Spies-Literaturpreis *2018: Premio San Clemente (Spain) *2018: Uwe Johnson Preis *2018: HWA Gold Crown for Historical Fiction (England) *2023: Thomas-Mann-Preis *2025: Kunstpreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
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== External links == * [http://www.nrw-literatur-im-netz.de/datenbank/autoren/437-rothmann-ralf.html Ralf Rothmann] in: NRW Literatur im Netz {{in lang|de}}
== Web sources == <references/>
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rothmann, Ralf}} Category:1953 births Category:Living people Category:People from Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein Category:German male writers Category:Kleist Prize winners
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