Feature Stories Campus Events All Stories

German Best-Seller

Washington and Lee English professor and novelist Laura Brodie has had a big couple of months in Germany. The German translation of her debut novel, The Widow’s Season, was released at the end of May, and it has been climbing the best-seller list there throughout the summer.

In July, the novel, retitled Ich weiß, du bist hier (I know you are here), moved into the top 20 and reached No. 12 last week on the daily list published by Der Spiegel. Yesterday, Laura was No. 13, a couple of spots behind Stephenie Meyer, Bernhard Schlink, and Nicholas Sparks and several positions ahead of John Irving’s Last Night at Twisted River.

In addition, Laura’s German publisher, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, published an abridged audio version of the novel, and that recently reached No. 5 on the download list for German iTunes. Laura was interviewed by a reporter for Madame, the German magazine that covers the latest trends in beauty and wellness, international interior designs, culture, arts, film, and music. A feature article is scheduled for later this year.

Meantime, The Widow’s Season has just been published in Dutch, and Laura is working on a second novel, which, like the first, will feature an English professor at a thinly-veiled version of Washington and Lee.

In addition to the novels, Laura is also the author of Breaking Out: VMI and the Coming of Women and, more recently,. And if that’s not enough, you can read her blog about homeschooling on Psychology Today.

If you know any W&L faculty who would be great profile subjects, tell us about them! Nominate them for a web profile.