Winter Fish

Gregor Sander's new short stories are set in the Baltic Sea area. Great stories in a small format. Brilliant.

These stories are set in Rerik, at the Kiel Canal, in Gotland, Helsinki, Klaipeda. They are about people who are on the move and yet bound by their fates: Taciturn seadogs, disillusioned artists, female idols. Although the stories are all different, they do have one thing in common. They are about longing – longing to be with loved ones, to lead a free life or simply to feel understood. And they captivate the reader again and again: Two men who have been friends for half their lives go on a sailing trip they have been given as a gift for their fortieth birthdays. Their destination is St. Petersburg. As they say goodbye to their wives, they are promised adventure and white nights. But life at sea does not prove to be as exciting as anticipated. However, it is astounding what a large part of the world Gregor Sander introduces to the crowded situation above and below deck. The focus is on the two men’s journeys through life, the possibility of studying medicine in 1990 after the collapse of the GDR, failing, starting a new life in Berlin, drinking, attempts at starting a family, children, and all the secrets, both large and small.
Sander's writing appears sparse, almost restrained; like the characters, like the northern landscape. In just a few strokes, discreet but precise, the author draws fates that never fail to fascinate the reader.

One of the first authors to represent the literature of a united Germany: Great art in confined spaces.
Oliver Seppelfricke, Deutschlandfunk (German Radio)

Gregor Sander’s debut novel »Abwesend» (Absent) was nominated for the German Book Prize. The cover story was awarded the 3Sat Prize in Klagenfurt.

The Author

Gregor Sander, born in Schwerin in 1968, trained as a metalworker and as an orderly before studying Medicine and German. After attending the Journalistenschule (School of Journalists) in Berlin, he now works as a freelance author in Berlin. In 2002 his volume of short stories »Ich aber bin hier geboren«

(But I was born here) was published, for which he received a special award of the Friedrich-Hölderlin Prize from the town of Homburg in 2004. In 2006 Gregor Sander received a scholarship from the Villa Massimo in Olevano Romano.

Gregor Sander’s first novel »Abwesend«

(Absent) was nominated for the German Book Prize.

The cover story was awarded the 3sat Prize in Klagenfurt.

Rights sold:
Czech: Vetrne mlyny