About the work
“Von Norden rollt ein Donner” (literally “From the North Rolls a Thunder”) is the second novel by German writer Markus Thielemann, born in 1992; it was published by C.H. Beck in July 2024, which presented it as an anti-Heimat novel. The first stage version, directed by Jan Friedrich, premiered on 20 September 2025 at Theater Magdeburg in Kammer 1 of the Schauspielhaus.
Plot
In the mid-2010s, 19-year-old Jannes Kohlmeyer drives his family's flock of Heidschnucke sheep across the southern Lüneburg Heath. When the wolf returns and kills livestock, tempers rise in the village and völkisch nationalist thinking gains new followers. At the same time Jannes is haunted by mysterious apparitions that lead him to the suppressed Nazi history of the region and its camps. The thunder of the title comes not from a storm but from tank ammunition fired on a nearby weapons testing range.
Cultural significance
The novel was shortlisted for the 2024 German Book Prize, whose jury praised the way it exposes ideology, silence and repression behind the rural idyll. NDR named it its book of the month for July 2024, and FAZ, SZ and Die Zeit reviewed it largely favourably.