A fact from Imperium (Kracht novel) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 12 July 2015 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that Christian Kracht's novel Imperium was debated in German newspapers in 2012 when it was accused of signaling a "racist worldview"?
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The Der Spiegel article says: "'Five Years' beschreibt in gewisser Weise Vorarbeiten zu dem Roman, der 'Imperium' wurde." I would translate this as: "Five Years describes in a way the preparatory works for the novel which became Imperium". I don't see how this would become "spiritual preparation". His point is that he thinks he can see what was on Kracht's mind while he wrote the novel by looking at Five Years, not that Five Years in itself was a part of the preparation. Smetanahue (talk) 14:52, 21 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The New York Times Book Review should certainly be quoted here, as should the review in The Wall Street Journal - they are more relevant to the English Wikipedia than - say - the Rheinische Post review. Original sources are preferable to translated ones.174.76.159.132 (talk) 16:02, 16 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
They're fine. Just remember that Wikipedia is written from a global perspective. The novel received more attention in the German press than in the American, so it makes sence to devote more space to the German coverage. Both the German and US part could of course be developed further as it is now. Smetanahue (talk) 16:56, 16 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]