„Intermezzo“ - a musical interlude, an unexpected chess move, and now Sally Rooney’s latest novel, in which she tackles the universal themes of grief, loss and love

In "What you can get", Clemens Böckmann gives a harrowing insight into the life of a sex worker who spied for the Stasi and into the "real existing socialism" of the German Democratic Republic, which was dissolved in 1989

With his three cycles in "Die Erde hebt uns auf" (The earth lifts us up), Tom Schulz has produced an outstanding volume of poetry that is as beautifully sad as it is formally rigorous, political in identity and combative

In "Kritik der großen Geste" (Critique of the grand gesture), sociology professor Armin Nassehi calls for politicians to refrain from making huge demands in times of major crises and opt instead for a policy of small steps

Joseph O'Neill's boldly composed and carefully researched football novel "Godwin" plays with the question of whether a biography with any degree of integrity can still unfold in this crazy world

In "The World of Tomorrow: A Sovereign Democratic Europe - and its Enemies", Robert Menasse asks whether nationalism is becoming the gravedigger of the EU and whether European elites are failing

In "Like a Wild God", Gianfranco Calligarich transforms a forgotten, cruel piece of the puzzle that is Italian colonial history into a postmodern, refracted, sparkling and contemporary mosaic.

"Wandering Stars", the new novel by Tommy Orange, is a gripping Native American family epic of volcanic force

In "The Raven Who Loved Me", Sudanese Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin transforms a migrant's deadly journey into a comedy - a courageous and well-executed feat

In "About Leo Perutz", Daniel Kehlmann enthuses about this forgotten writer and shows why his novels are still worth reading decades after their publication