{{Short description|German novelist}} '''Simon Urban''' (born in 1975) is a German novelist.
Simon Urban was born in Hagen in 1975.<ref name=":1">{{cite news |last=Seidler |first=Ulrich |date=11 February 2021 |url=https://www.fr.de/kultur/literatur/simon-urban-wie-alles-begann-und-wer-dabei-umkam-todesurteil-fuer-die-boese-oma-90200537.html |title=Simon Urban: "Wie alles begann und wer dabei umkam" – Todesurteil für die böse Oma |newspaper=Frankfurter Rundschau |language=de |access-date=28 November 2023 }}</ref> He studied at the Leipzig University's German Institute for Literature, worked in advertising and published short stories before he debuted as a novelist. His first novel was ''{{ill|Plan D (novel)|lt=Plan D|de|Plan D (Roman)}}'' (2011), a political and ironic thriller set in an alternative present where East Germany never fell.<ref>{{cite news |last=Graf |first=Guido |date=13 August 2011 |url=https://www.welt.de/print/die_welt/vermischtes/article13542486/Neues-aus-der-DDR-die-es-noch-gibt.html |title=Neues aus der DDR, die es noch gibt |newspaper=Die Welt |language=de |access-date=28 November 2023 }}</ref> His second novel ''Gondwana'' (2014) is a satirical murder mystery set on a Pacific island where people from different religions try to co-exist in an experiment where they adopt every prohibition from each other's religions.<ref>{{cite news |last=Magenau |first=Jörg |date=20 June 2014 |url=https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/science-fiction-krimi-im-dienste-der-entheiligung-100.html |title=Im Dienste der Entheiligung |language=de |publisher=Deutschlandfunk Kultur |access-date=28 November 2023 }}</ref> ''Wie alles begann und wer dabei umkam'' (2021) is a picaresque novel about death penalty and legal paradoxes.<ref name=":1" /> In 2023 he published the social novel ''Zwischen Welten'' which he co-wrote with Juli Zeh. It consists of e-mails and phone messages between a woman who runs a farm and a man who works at a newspaper; they disagree about many matters but both adore the writer Martin Walser.<ref>{{cite news |last=Knipphals |first=Dirk |date=28 January 2023 |url=https://taz.de/Neuer-Roman-von-Juli-Zeh-und-Simon-Urban/!5908955/ |title=Debatten bis aufs Blut |newspaper=Die Tageszeitung |language=de |access-date=28 November 2023 }}</ref>
==Publications== * 2011: ''{{ill|Plan D (novel)|lt=Plan D|de|Plan D (Roman)}}'' * 2014: ''Gondwana'' * 2021: ''Wie alles begann und wer dabei umkam'' * 2023: ''Zwischen Welten''
==References== {{reflist}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Urban, Simon}} Category:1975 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century German novelists Category:German male novelists Category:People from Hagen Category:Leipzig University alumni Category:21st-century German male writers