In the fall of 2009 Kathrin Schmidt found herself in the limelight when she was awarded the prestigious German Book Prize for her novel

Du stirbst nicht

(You Are Not Going to Die). This prose text, according to the judges an “individual tale of a return from the brink of death [that] is positioned both unobtrusively and with great skill in the echo chamber of the historical-political era of change” differs significantly from Schmidt’s earlier writing (“Preisträger 2009”).

Du stirbst nicht

, designated the best German-language novel in the year 2009, is stylistically much less challenging than its predecessors, which—just like Schmidt’s short stories—possess a distinctive writing style that evokes magic realism in the South American tradition, resembling the writings of…

1125 words

Citation: Klocke, Sonja. "Kathrin Schmidt". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 October 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13415, accessed 09 October 2024.]

13415 Kathrin Schmidt 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.