Swiss author wins 2025 German Book Prize

Swiss author Dorothee Elmiger won the 2025 German Book Prize. The award was presented on Oct. 13 before the opening ceremony of the Frankfurt Book Fair.

The award ceremony took place in the Imperial Hall of the Frankfurt Remer, and the winner was awarded for her novel “The Dutch Women,” published in Aug. 2025 by the German publishing house Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Co. KG.

“This novel is an event. A writer recounts her journey into the South American jungle with a theatre group, retracing the path of two Dutch women who disappeared there years earlier. Along the way, the group shares unsettling stories. The deeper they venture into the thicket and mire, the more Elmiger pulls the reader into a vortex of fear. Her novel tells of people who descend into their ‘darkest opposite’. Not only Elmiger’s language is oblique – so is her reference to our present, which is sinking, step by step, into hubris. Her style is at once distant and yet gripping. ‘Die Holländerinnen’ (The Dutch Women) – a fascinating journey into the heart of darkness,” read the justification of the jury.

The winner was determined in several stages. From the beginning of the selection process, seven jury members reviewed 229 novels published between Oct. 2024 and Sept. 2025. From this group, a longlist of 20 titles was compiled, from which six finalists were later chosen.

Other nominees were:

• Kaleb Erdmann, “Die Ausweichschule” (park x ullstein);
• Jehona Kicaj, “ë” (Wallstein);
• Thomas Melle, “Haus zur Sonne” (Kiepenheuer & Witsch);
• Fiona Sironic, “Am Samstag gehen die Mädchen in den Wald und jagen Sachen in die Luft” (Ecco); and
• Christine Wunnicke, “Wachs” (Berenberg).

“Every year, the German Book Prize gives us space to pause and reflect. It highlights the diversity with which German-language literature reflects our contemporary world — with all its ambivalence. Each novel unfolds page by page, word by word — and each reader reads it in their own way. In this dialogue between text and reader, we may feel confused, find confirmation of our own thoughts, or be surprised. We have the right to reflect — instead of judging immediately — and to celebrate literature as a meeting place,” said Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, Chairwoman of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association.

The winner receives 25,000 euros, and the five shortlisted authors receive 2,500 euros each. 

The jury for the 2025 German Book Prize included:

• Head of the jury Laura de Weck (Swiss Radio and Television);
• Maria Carolina Foi (University of Trieste);
• Jürgen Kaube (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung);
• Friedhelm Marx (University of Bamberg);
• Kathrin Matern (Frau Rilke bookstore, Neustrelitz);
• Lara Sielmann (Deutschlandfunk Kultur); and
• Shirin Sojitrawalla (independent critic).

Elmiger is a Swiss writer, translator, and historian who is considered to be one of the most promising young Swiss writers. Elmiger has won numerous literary awards, including the aspekte-Literaturpreis and the Rauris Prize (for the best literary debut). In 2014, Elmiger received the Hermann-Hesse-Förderpreis for her second novel “Schlafgänger,” and in 2015, she received the Swiss Literature Prize.

The German Book Prize is awarded by the Foundation for Book Culture and Reading Promotion of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association to honor the best German-language novel of the year. Its main partner is the Deutsche Bank Foundation, with additional support from the Frankfurt Book Fair and the city of Frankfurt am Main.

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Images: Christof Jakob

Copy editing: Joy Tataryn