German Authors Are Riding a New Wave of Popularity

"Es muß nicht immer Cornelia Funke sein!" No, you don't just have to read Cornelia Funke all of the time. Her phenomenal success with "Dragonrider", "The Thief Lord" and now "Inkhart" in the United States appears to many to be the start of something bigger - something bigger for other German authors like her, that is.

Sure, her making it on the cover of Time magazine may have had a little something to do with the great international success of her books, but what came first: The chicken or the egg? And her superstar status has not gone unnoticed in the German book publishing industry. German publishers were certainly in a very good mood at the Frankfurt Book Fair recently, at least when it came to the subject of potential international sales. German books are suddenly and inexplicably selling very well overseas. And it doesn't have to be Cornelia Funke all of the time, either.

Another German author helped pave the way for her a few years back. Time magazine didn't have to get involved this time, either. Oprah Winfrey opened the doors for him. Her recommendation helped place Bernhard Schlink's "The Reader" (Der Vorleser) on first place of the American bestseller list in1999. "The Reader" too, as with Funke's works, became something of an international phenomenon. Since its first publication in Germany in 1995 it has been translated into 27 languages and has made it to the top of bestseller lists all around the world. Schlink's small book handled the division between children and parents of the war-time generation, their inability to talk to one another about the German trauma.