Jenny Erpenbeck Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Jenny Erpenbeck is a German writer and director. She was born March 12, 1967 in East Berlin.

She is the daughter of John Erpenbeck, a writer, philosopher, and a physicist, and of Doris Kilias, an Arabic translator. Her grandparents are Fritz Erpenbeck and Hedda Zinner, both authors. While she was living in the city of Berlin, she attended Advanced High School, graduating from the school in 1985.

After that, Jenny went on to take on a two year apprenticeship as a book binder which she completed. She then went on to work at various theaters in the capacity of a props and a wardrobe supervisor. She would then study theater from 1988 to 1990 at the Humboldt University of Berlin. She changed her studies in 1990 to Music Theater Director at the Hanns Eisler Music Conservatory.

After completing her studies in 1994, culminating with a production of the opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, she would go on to spend some time as an assistant director at the opera house in Graz. There she did her own personal productions of Erwatung and Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, as well as a premiere of her own personal piece Cats Have Seven Lives.

Working as a freelance director, Jenny would direct in different opera houses in Austria and Germany in 1998. These extend to the L’Orfeo in Aachen, Acis and Galatea at the Berlin State Opera, and Zaide by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Nuremberg/Erlangen.

During the nineties, the author began a career in writing on top of directing. She is known for writing narrative prose and plays. In 1999, it was her debut History of the Old Child. In 2011, it was Trinkets, her collection of stories. She then wrote the novella Dictionary, the novel Visitation, and even took over a biweekly column from Nicole Krauss that was featured in the Frankfurter Allemeine Zeitung. She has a son and together they reside in Berlin.

Go, Went, Gone is a 2017 novel by Jenny Erpenbeck. One of the great authors in European contemporary writing goes on to take on a great issue in Europe. Read this book to follow along!

Robert has worked as a university professor for the majority of his life. During that time, he has become even more immersed in the world full of books and ideas. But that time is over, as he has now retired. Instead his books remain packed away in their boxes and he goes out into the streets of his city Berlin to experience things.

On Alexanderplatz, Robert finds a new community that he didn’t know existed. It’s a tent city that has been set up by African asylum seekers. Doing his best to try and get to know the new arrivals, Richard discovers that his own life is changing as he starts to question his own sense of belonging in a city that once split up the citizens who lived there into the categories of ‘them’ and ‘us’.

It is an examination of subjects such as privilege, race, and nationality, and the story of a man who is growing older’s mission to try and find meaning in his life. This novel shows one of the great European writers and a valuable voice in fiction that you may not have experienced before, so go ahead and give it a try and find out what Jenny Erpenbeck is all about with Go, Went, Gone.

Kairos is a 2023 novel written by Jenny Erpenbeck. If you have read stories by this author before or are just looking to try something new, you cannot go wrong with this book.

Two people end up meeting by pure chance in East Berlin coming in at the end of the 80s and for the next few years find that they simply cannot get away from each other. Katharina is nineteen years old and Hans is a man in his mid-fifties who is married.

Set against the backdrop of the GDR which is in decline as well as the upheaval that takes place after 1989, the author once more describes in her own language the journey of two lovers that takes place in the very same borderland between things such as lies and truth, hatred and hope, and obsession and violence. Everything disappears the second that it happens in her life, with the border being only a moment. Can Katharina and Hans reach a happy conclusion? Read this novel to find out!