Dorothee Elmiger receives the German Book Prize 2025 for “Die Holländerinnen” (“The Dutch Women”)

Statement from the jury:

“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.”

The members of the jury for the German Book Prize 2025 are: jury spokesperson Laura de Weck (Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen), Maria Carolina Foi (University of Trieste), Jürgen Kaube (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Friedhelm Marx (University of Bamberg), Kathrin Matern (“Frau Rilke” bookshop, Neustrelitz), Lara Sielmann (Deutschlandfunk Kultur) and Shirin Sojitrawalla (independent critic).

The following novels were also shortlisted for the award:
Kaleb Erdmann: Die Ausweichschule (park x ullstein, July 2025), Jehona Kicaj: ë (Wallstein Verlag, July 2025), Thomas Melle: Haus zur Sonne (Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch, August 2025), Fiona Sironic: Am Samstag gehen die Mädchen in den Wald und jagen Sachen in die Luft (Ecco Verlag, March 2025) and Christine Wunnicke: Wachs (Berenberg Verlag, March 2025).

With the German Book Prize 2025, the Stiftung Buchkultur und Leseförderung des Börsenvereins des Deutschen Buchhandels (Foundation for Book Culture and the Promotion of Reading of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association) honours the best German-language novel of the year. Deutsche Bank Stiftung (Deutsche Bank Foundation) is the main sponsor of the German Book Prize, and Frankfurter Buchmesse and the city of Frankfurt am Main are also partners.

A press photo of Dorothee Elmiger will be available at approx. 8:30 p.m. at www.boersenverein.de/pressefotos.