Burying Grandma by Birgit Schössow & Leon Hertz and the Thing About Sadness by Volker Surmann have both been shortlisted for the Protestant Book Prize 2025!
Click on the covers for more information:
The Jury on Burying Grandma:
“Three siblings, lots of dying and a spectacular happy ending.
First off: there is a lot of dying in this book. First it hits the parents, then the cat and finally the grandmother. Three siblings have to go through it, bury the grandmother in the garden and take care of themselves for the time being.
If you haven’t rolled your eyes at the improbability of the events and gasped at the potential overwhelming of sensitive children, I advise you to read the book, because it’s good.
First-person narrator Paul and his sisters live happily with their parents in Hamburg. But on a date night, the parents are run over and die. The children come to a grandmother they didn’t know before. In a small town. But it is surprisingly beautiful. There is also a cat that helps them to grieve – until it dies. Of old age. This death is also thoroughly mourned, the cat is buried, and life goes on. But then the unthinkable happens: their grandmother also dies. She has thoroughly planned out their lives after her death: They should continue to live in her house and not end up in separate foster families. But how that works is a story you should let Paul tell you himself.
A laconic orphan story about resilience, self-efficacy and how to continue living after life-changing losses. Adventurous. And brave, hats off to the publisher!” – Shortlist Protestant Book Prize 2025
The Jury on Leon Hertz and the Thing About Sadness:
“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