Overview

• A group of prominent authors today disclosed the titles they turn to for comfort in moments of personal and global upheaval.
• Ewald Arenz cites Kurt Held’s Die rote Zora and Mariana Leky’s Kummer aller Art for their enduring themes of friendship and gentle melancholy.
• Sebastian Fitzek recommends Jana Crämer’s Jana, 39, ungeküsst as a source of courage against societal expectations, while Martina Hefter turns to Marlen Haushofer’s Die Wand for its portrayal of survival in isolation.
• Alexa Hennig von Lange finds emotional refuge in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye for their capacity to mirror inner struggles.
• Mithu Sanyal highlights P. G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves novels for lighthearted escape, praises Dorothy L. Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries for their empathy and looks ahead to Phil Rickman’s posthumous novel The Echo of Crows due in November.