Blood Book

WINNER OF THE GERMAN BOOK PRIZE, THE SWISS BOOK PRIZE AND THE JÜRGEN PONTO LITERATURE PRIZE

'Powerful' - Times Literary Supplement

'Formally adventurous' - New York Times

'An exquisite inquiry into what it means to be an individual in a body, a family, a society, with all the attendant misery, humour, joy and enduring mystery' - Krystelle Bamford, author of Idle Grounds

'Everything about it is fantastic' - Die Welt

'One can only marvel' - Die Zeit

'An important new voice for a new form of writing' - Tages-Anzeiger

As their grandmother slides into dementia, an unnamed narrator begins to ask questions - to fill in the gaps, to resist the silence that shrouds their family. Childhood memories resurface, revealing a path into the past, winding back through generations. This matrilineal line leads toward nature, witchcraft, freedom. Could this be where they belong?

What follows is an astounding quest for liberation - from generational trauma, class identity, the limits of language. It's a search for other forms of knowledge and traditions, other ways of becoming. Bold and expansive, Blood Book is an unforgettable reckoning with the past, and a mesmerising exploration of who we are.

Published in the US as Sea, Mothers, Swallow, Tongues

Translated by Jamie Searle Romanelli