Author Shida Bazyar at German Book Prize: No minority currently has no reason to worry

Commentary by Dirk Knipphals

Publication Date: October 6, 2026, 16:15

When Shida Bazyar was announced as the winner of the German Book Prize, the applause was loud — but the author paused. Her speech became a penetrating look at contemporary fears.

A brief moment of silence, a collective pause — this can be something unexpected, even precious. Especially when it occurs in the context of an event as talkative as the Frankfurt Book Fair, which, as author Rainald Goetz once succinctly put it, is really about "blathering on." Writer Shida Bazyar created such a moment — precisely when she was awarded the German Book Prize.

A prize ceremony has its own rules. It should be entertaining, but not beneath a certain standard. It should follow a well-rehearsed routine, but not be too mechanical. It should offer surprises, but not overly exciting ones. In short, one should enjoy watching — but, aside from the winner's name, expect no revelations.

That was the case on this Monday evening at Frankfurt's Römer. Flawless moderation, intelligent greetings, professional video segments introducing the shortlisted candidates — everything ran smoothly. That is, until the name Shida Bazyar was announced and the writer was invited to the stage to accept the prize certificate and, if she wished, say a few words of thanks. She wished to. And from that moment on, everything changed.

She could not deliver a happy thank-you speech, the writer said — and one could feel it through the livestream all the way to a home desk: the audience in attendance held its breath in that moment, and viewers turned their full attention to their screens. One is accustomed, on such occasions, to authors who are first struck speechless by joy before eventually managing to say something.

The excitement is as understandable as the happiness. They have worked on their latest novel for years; now they receive a cornucopia of attention and a high print run, while the tension of being a candidate subsides. Adrenaline rules at first.

Digging into the Past

But Shida Bazyar appeared composed. Not jaded, but strikingly detached. And in her brief thank-you speech, she explained why. She had written a novel about the history of the place where she grew up, she said, and in doing so, she encountered displacement and flight, racism and antisemitism. She said this not as an accusation, but as a statement. And it is simply true: whoever digs into the past in this country will find these themes.

Many people are now doing so using publicly available lists of NSDAP members, encountering members of their own families. That did not happen to her with her own family, Bazyar said. But it did happen through her hometown. The town is called Heimesbach in the novel; in reality, it is Hermeskeil.

Like so many places in Germany — which ones, actually, are not? — it has a Nazi past. In the afterword of her novel, the author reveals that a historical study prompted her to write the book. It is titled: "Jews in the Gau Model Village — Tracing the Steps of Former Jewish Neighbors in Hermeskeil." That is how she dug into the past.

All of this vibrated in that moment of pause at the award ceremony. Shida Bazyar was happy about the recognition for her novel "Die Lücken" (The Gaps), but it did not feel entirely right to do so unreservedly, since the novel deals with people who were persecuted, terrorized, and murdered. This reaction is more than understandable, especially in a situation where the public is once again discussing the displacement of groups of people from German soil. Racist and antisemitic crimes are at an all-time high, Shida Bazyar said. "There is currently no minority that does not have reason to worry."

At the same time, her reaction reveals something about a possible truth of literature: real human fates lie behind it. "Die Lücken" is, incidentally, a very good novel. One wishes it many readers.

Dirk Knipphals, born in 1963, studied literary studies and philosophy in Kiel and Hamburg. He has worked as a journalist since 1991, from 1994 to 1996 at taz.hamburg, and since 1999 in Berlin.