Terézia Mora's Das Ungeheuer was awarded the German Book Prize 2013, which honors the year's best German-language novel. The Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels Stiftung – the Foundation of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association – presented the award to coincide with the start of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Mora will receive a 25,000 euro cash prize for her winning novel, described by the jury as a "deeply moving" story of a man in the wake of his wife's suicide. She beat out finalists Mirko Bonné (Nie mehr Nacht); Reinhard Jirgl (Nichts von euch auf Erden); Clemens Meyer (Im Stein); Marion Poschmann (Die Sonnenposition); and Monika Zeiner (Die Ordnung der Sterne über Como). Each of the finalists will receive 2,500 euros.
Jury members for this year's German Book Prize included: Helmut Böttiger (independent critic, jury spokesman), Katrin Lange (Literaturhaus Munich), Ursula März (Die Zeit), Jörg Plath (independent critic), Andreas Platthaus (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Klaus Seufer-Wasserthal (Rupertus Buchhandlung, Salzburg, Austria) and Claudia Voigt (Der Spiegel).
