Volker Surmann’s young adult novel Leon Hertz and the Thing About Sadness has won this year’s Protestant Book Prize.
This is a wonderful and certainly most deserved honour for this outstanding book, which had already received several other accolades and nominations. More information can be found here.
The jury’s verdict:
“His school presentation in the ethics class brings Leon into contact with questions about grief – but in a very different way than you might expect.
Leon has chosen the topic ‘The wooden cross at the traffic lights’ for the ethics assignment. A 23-year-old cyclist was fatally injured here. But who put up the cross? Who still lights the candle and puts fresh flowers there years later? And why?
Leon’s research takes him to the cemetery, to people who are grieving in different ways, who have lost their grip on life as a result of the accident, and it makes him realise his own mortality in a panic. In addition to the topics of death and mourning, the book is full to the brim with profound topics: depression, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, outsiders, bullying, youth subcultures, sexual orientation, homophobia, etc. It reads like a thriller, is as light as a love story and, on top of that, is a funny and touching story of friendship. That’s quite an achievement! Not to mention the expressive chapter vignettes that you can and should incorporate into your work with the book.
The accessibility with this uncomfortable topic should make the book compulsory reading for ethics, religion and confirmation classes. Chapeau, Volker Surmann!” – Shortlist Protestant Book Prize 2025