Open Books 2024: Books by a German author, or that take place in Germany

The Open Books Reading Challenge is a year-long reading challenge for people interested in pushing the boundaries of their reading. For full details of the program, please check-out our page at: https://www.rplmn.org/books-more/discover-more/open-books-reading-challenge

This list is to help you find books that fit the 2024 category of "Books by a German author, or that take place in Germany."

Happy Reading!


Updated December 19, 2023
RPL Staff
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The neverending story
Ende, Michael.
Paper Book
From award-winning author Michael Ende, The Neverending Story is a classic tale of one boy and the book that magically comes to life Unicorns, dragons, sprites, will-o'-the-wisps- the inhabitants of an enchanted world. And into this world - through the pages of an old book...
Every man dies alone
Fallada, Hans
Paper Book
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year "To read Every Man Dies Alone, Fallada's testament to the darkest years of the 20th century, is to be accompanied by a wise, somber ghost who grips your shoulder and whispers in your ear: 'This is how it was. This...
The Thief Lord
Funke, Cornelia Caroline.
Audiobook
Prosper and Bo are orphans on the run from their cruel aunt and uncle. The brothers decide to hide out in Venice, where they meet a mysterious thirteen-year-old who calls himself the "Thief Lord." Brilliant and charismatic, the Thief Lord leads a ring of street children who dabble in petty crimes....
Ruby red
Gier, Kerstin.
Paper Book
Gwyneth Shepherd's sophisticated, beautiful cousin Charlotte has been prepared her entire life for traveling through time. But unexpectedly, it is Gwyneth who in the middle of class takes a sudden spin to a different era! Gwyneth must now unearth the mystery of why her mother would...
The complete Grimm's fairy tales
Grimm, Jacob
Paper Book
The stories of magic and myth gathered by the Brothers Grimm have become part of the way children-and adults-learn about the vagaries of the real world. Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow-White, H nsel and Gretel, Little Red-Cap (Little Red Riding Hood), and Briar-Rose (Sleeping Beauty) are only a few of...
Dear child
Hausmann, Romy
Paper Book
NOW A #1 NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES AND #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER "[A] tantalizingly disturbing debut...As enthralling as it is thought-provoking." -New York Times Book Review BookPage's Top 10 Mystery & Suspense of the Year Chicago Public...
The glass bead game : (Magister Ludi)
Hesse, Hermann
Paper Book
The hangman's daughter
Pötzsch, Oliver.
Paper Book
Taking us back in history to a place where autopsies were blasphemous, coffee was an exotic drink, dried toads were the recommended remedy for the plague, and the devil was as real as anything, New York Times bestselling author Oliver Pötzsch's The Hangman's Daughter is the rollicking start to an...
28 days : a novel of resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto
Safier, David
Paper Book
Inspired by true events, David Safier's 28 Days: A Novel of Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto is a harrowing historical YA that chronicles the brutality of the Holocaust. Warsaw, 1942. Sixteen-year old Mira smuggles food into the Ghetto to keep herself and her...
The most dazzling girl in Berlin
Wilson, Kip
Paper Book
A fascinating historical novel about Hilde, an orphan who experiences Berlin on the cusp of World War II as she discovers her own voice and sexuality, ultimately finding a family when she gets a job at a gay cabaret, by award-winning author Kip Wilson. On her eighteenth birthday, Hilde...
Stella
Würger, Takis
Ebook
In this "spare, effecting novel," a playboy in WWII Berlin discovers that the bliss of romance cannot shield him from the horrors of war (Publishers Weekly).Friedrich, a wealthy but naïve young man, arrives in Berlin from Switzerland in 1942 with dreams of becoming an artist. He...

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