Ralf Rothmann

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.