An extract from While We Were Dreaming by Clemens Meyer, translated by Katy Derbyshire
Read an extract from the extraordinary debut novel While We Were Dreaming, which was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023
Clemens Meyer
Clemens Meyer was born in 1977 in Halle and lives in Leipzig, Germany. He worked as a security guard, forklift driver and construction worker before becoming a published novelist.
Meyer studied creative writing at the German Literary Institute, Leipzig and was granted a scholarship by the Saxon Ministry of Science and Arts in 2002. His first novel, Als wir träumten [While We Were Dreaming], was a huge success in Germany. His second book, Die Nacht, die Lichter [All the Lights], a collection of short stories, was awarded the Leipzig Book Fair Prize 2008. Bricks and Mortar was shortlisted for the German Book Prize and was awarded the Bremer Literaturpreis 2014 and was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2017.
Energetic, blunt and hard-charging, While We Were Dreaming skilfully captures with pathos and anger the sense of what happens when all the certainties of the grown-up world evaporate and the future is up for grabs.
— The International Booker Prize 2023 panel of judges on 'While We Were Dreaming'
All nominated books
Startlingly raw and deeply moving, this extraordinary debut novel from one of Germany’s most ambitious writers is full of passion, hope and despair.
Clemens Meyer’s dazzling, dizzying tour de force chronicles the growth of the sex industry in the former East Germany over the last 30 years. Translated by Katy Derbyshire.
