In the first stop on the Guardian's four-week trip around our European neighbours, we visit Berlin to find out what Germans are reading today. Simon Winder, author of an irreverent history of Germany, talks about the makings of the culture that created Bach and Goethe. Plus, we garner reading tips from some of the contributors to the German leg of our World literature tour.
We return to the UK to talk shipwrecks and dragons with Carol Birch, whose new novel, Jamrach's Menagerie, has just been longlisted for the all-women Orange prize for fiction.
Reading list
Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (Canongate)
Germania by Simon Winder (Picador)
Gallow Songs and Other Poems by Christian Morgenstern, translated by Max Knight (University of California Press)
The Ship by Hans Henny Jahnn (Peter Owen)
Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck (Portobello)
Accident by Christa Wolf (Chicago University Press)
