Saša Stanišić

In his new book with the snappy title 'Möchte die Witwe angesprochen werden, platziert sie auf dem Grab die Gießkanne mit dem Ausguss nach vorne', Saša Stanišić shows once again why he is one of the most important German authors of our time. His use of language is virtuoso, poetic and spiced with a pinch of humor, his stories dreamy and intricate. Yet they only came together in 1992, the German language and Saša Stanišić, when he came to Germany from Bosnia at the age of 14.

What if you hadn't made this one decision, but a completely different one? What if fate had given us a better self, greater happiness, or prettier and funnier pets and partners?
Saša Stanišić's new stories are dedicated to this constant pondering at the crossroads of our biography, where we could have taken a more surprising path, made an unusual choice or told a lie. Like the cleaner who decides to finally take life into her own hands with a brush made of goat hair in her hand. Or like the father who is prepared to cheat in order to finally win against his eight-year-old son in Memory.

Saša Stanišić was born in Višegrad (Yugoslavia) in 1978 and has lived in Germany since 1992. His works have been translated into more than forty languages and have received many awards. His debut novel 'How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone' was an instant worldwide success. He received the German Book Prize for his novel 'Where You Come From' in 2019. Since then at the latest, the bestselling author has been one of the country's top writers. He lives and works in Hamburg.