FOREIGN RIGHTS 2008

2008 FOREIGN RIGHTS Berlin Verlag Bloomsbury Berlin Berliner Taschenbuch Verlag

FICTION

Ingo Schulze Adam and Evelyn

NO M IN AT ED FO R TH E 20 08 GE RM AN BO OK PR IZ E

A great tragicomedy about forbiddance and discovery and the search for the true paradise.

Ingo Schulze Adam and Evelyn Novel 314 pages. Hardcover Published in August 2008

Women love Adam because he makes dresses that make them beautiful and desirable. Adam loves beautiful women.

Once they are wearing his dresses he desires them all – and apart from that he loves Evelyn. She catches him inflagranti with one of his creations one hot August day. Instead of taking Adam, Evelyn goes away to Lake Balaton in Hungary with a friend and her cousin from the West. Adam climbs into his rickety Wartburg to follow their red Passat. He would go to the end of the world for Evelyn – and perhaps he will have to, as Hungary plans to open its borders to the West. Suddenly, the forbidden fruit is within arm's reach, and everyone has to make a decision.

In the exceptional situation of the late summer of 1989, the limbo of sudden freedom of choice, Ingo Schulze stumbles upon the ancient story of forbidden fruit and temptation, love and discovery, and man's desire for paradise. But where can we find it? In the promises of the West, the freedom of an endless holiday summer on the Balaton, or perhaps after all in the familiar musty office smell of a freshly opened lunch tin and one's own garden?

In a light-hearted play on the biblical myth of Adam and Eve, Ingo Schulze has created a magnificent tragicomedy.

With his ironically broken idea of the Fall of Man, he finds a cipher for entry into our present-day world.

'This was how holidays smelled. This was how holidays had always smelled. He didn't know when he had last drunk from this thermos flask. But there was no other smell that belonged more than this, that meant family, friends, vacation, that was free from all worries. He felt as if a burden was falling from his shoulders, as if he could now breathe again and his heart could relax. And even before he took the next sip he suddenly knew what he had to say to Evelyn if she came out of the door now – or in a few hours' time. Suddenly everything seemed very simple.'

Ingo Schulze was born in Dresden in 1962, studied classical philosophy in Jena and then worked in Altenburg as a playwright and newspaper editor. He has lived in Berlin since 1993.

Ingo Schulze is a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts and the German Academy of Language and Literature. His books have been translated into 27 languages.

2008 Premio Grinzane Cavour 2007 Thuringian Literature Prize 2007 Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2007 Villa Massimo grant 2006 Peter Weiss Prize of the City of Bochum

2001 Joseph Breitenbach Prize 1998 Johannes Bobrowski Medal 1998 Berlin Literature Prize 1995 Ernst Willner Prize 1995 Aspekte Literature Prize

© Jim Rakete

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FICTION

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Ingo Schulze Cell Phone, New Lives 'World class literature.' Die Welt ‘Handy is a literary event. With his thirteen new short stories, Ingo Schulze shows with ease how to hide the greatest literary ingenuity behind a simple narrative tone.’

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

‘Ingo Schulze has brought a kind of writing to the peak of perfection here, which seduces the reader through the appearance of being life itself.’ Süddeutsche Zeitung

‘In his new book Handy, Ingo Schulze transforms the fantastic into reality and entices through the great art of humour and subtle irony. One is perfectly happy to believe and be amazed at everything he writes.’ taz ‘Schulze's trick is to hide behind inconspicuous narrators who demand no stylistic tomfoolery. His prose stands out for its modesty.’

Der Tagesspiegel Ingo Schulze Cell Phone Thirteen Stories in the Old Style Short stories 280 pages. Hardcover Published in February 2007 Sold to: USA, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungaria, Korea, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Norway, Romania, Serbia, Slowenia, Marcedonia, Brazil

‘There are only few writers in German literature today who have such a firm command of the techniques and tricks of narration as Ingo Schulze.’ Die Welt

'The best novel about German reunification.' DIE ZEIT ‘A miracle. The reader sits open-mouthed, both surprised and pleased reading this wonderfully work on the philosophy of money, romantic poetry and epic strength. This book is an admirable piece of work.’

Süddeutsche Zeitung

Ingo Schulze 33 Moments of Happiness Novel 272 pages.

Published in August 1995 Sold to: USA, UK, France, Israel, Russia, Estonia, Netherlands, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Croatia, Bulgaria, Korea, Romania

‘An incredible feast!’ Der Spiegel ‘What a stupendous, fantastic book! I haven’t read a new German novel of this literary class for years. This is a maturetruly masterful literary performance.’ Berliner Morgenpost ‘A great, impeccable coup in literature, a coup that is brilliant in its humour and dramatic.

A stroke of genius.’ Frankfurter Rundschau

Ingo Schulze Simple Storys Novel 304 pages.

Published in March 1998 Sold to: USA, UK, France, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Estonia, Netherlands, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Spain, Hungary, Russia, Czech Republic, Brazil, Latvia, Egypt, Korea, Croatia, Ukraine, Romania

Ingo Schulze New Lives Novel 794 pages. Hardcover Published in October 2005 Sold to: USA, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Catalonia, Slovac Republic, Korea, Sweden, Hungaria, Brazil

FICTION

Patricia Görg Meier with a Y The cheap life of a man incapable of splashing out.

Just as churches once displayed the Labours of the Months depicting the work, crop cycles and festivals throughout the year, here a miser goes through his own personal labours throughout the year. Labours of miserliness.

Poor old Meyer! He looks out through the bars of his neurotic character. But: his Y refuses to play along. It jumps and leaps across the rooftops, shakes youth out of a rejected old tin, commits this lunacy and that. Is this the same man who shoots at wandering stars from a crossroads by night?

Meyer lives in the bargain basement of life: a life of worry, lived in episodes, always under threat of loss. While all around him, behind him, below him, alongside him, the rest of nature metabolises and tells parts of a coherent story.

Patricia Görg Meier with a Y A year book 172 pages. Hardcover Published in January 2008

'A success!' Die Welt 'Patricia Görg's language has the precision of true poetry.' Süddeutsche Zeitung 'The loneliness of this highly modern neurotic is shocking.' Kulturspiegel 'This unusual book condenses things as different as poetry and warning signs into a highly contemporary portrayal of modern morals.' Frankfurter Rundschau

Patricia Görg Ocean of Quiet A Book of Adventures 176 pages.

Published February 2003 Sold to: Russia

'Patricia Görg finds linguistic images for the visible and the invisible, which are so luminous that one is amazed not to have seen them before.' Bayerischer Rundfunk 'Patricia Görg has written a tragicomic, laconic and at times poetically luminous book.' Deutschlandradio Kultur 'Precise descriptions of nature and forceful images.' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Patricia Görg Dead Acquaintances Contemporary Stories 186 pages.

Published February 2005

Patricia Görg Lucky Splits A Story 128 pages.

Published March 2000 Sold to: Russia

Patricia Görg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1960.

After studying theatre studies, sociology and psychology, she became a freelance author and now lives in Berlin. She has written essays for newspapers and radio, along with numerous radio plays. Berlin Verlag has previously published the short story Glücksspagat (2000), the adventure book Meer der Ruhe (2003) and the stories Tote Bekannte (2005).

© Renate von Mangoldt

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FICTION

Thomas Klupp Paradiso A wicked debut novel that leaves the reader behind, wide-eyed and breathless.

All he wanted was to get from Potsdam to Munich by the shortest route. But nothing in Alex Böhm's life is predictable. The dark side of things is part of his life – no wonder for a man whose character displays a chronic lack of morals.

It's hot. Boiling hot. Alex Böhm is standing at a motorway service station near Potsdam, waiting. Any minute now, a yellow estate car will turn up and take him to Munich, and then he'll fly to Portugal with his girlfriend Johanna.

Or maybe he will. But first he runs into Konrad, who he knows from his schooldays. 'Konrad the loser' used to wear tracksuits, and now he's driving an Audi TT complete with a blonde on the passenger seat. The moment Alex gets into the car, the 'Böhm System' starts ticking away – louder and louder, faster and faster. Meeting up with Konrad triggers off a forceful encounter with the past.

Alex Böhm's interior monologue chews up the reader and spits them out again – disaster is inevitable. Alex gets in and out of cars, the people he meets taking him back home, to the borderlands between cheap prostitution and forestedged rural idyll. It smells of destruction, and that's no illusion…

Thomas Klupp Paradiso Novel Approx. 160 pages. Hardcover To be published in February 2009

'Everyone, literally everyone in the church turns around to me as if on command and looks right at me.

They don't say a single word, not even the priest, who could have me thrown out on the spot if he wanted, and then the organ stops playing and all. The music stops in the middle of a note, and this must be exactly how it feels when the world stops turning and the sun goes out and you look the dark side of the moon in the eye, exactly like this, and it's an incredibly good feeling.'

© Berlin Verlag

Thomas Klupp was born in Erlangen in 1977 and lives in Berlin. He has edited the literary magazine BELLA triste and now works at the University of Hildesheim's Literature Institute.

He has published prose in magazines and anthologies, received a workshop grant from the Jürgen Ponto Foundation and was invited to the 10th Klagenfurt Literature Course. Paradiso is his first novel.

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FICTION

Péter Esterházy No Great Art 'I WILL WRITE ABOUT ALL THAT IN MORE DETAIL LATER.' The final sentence of Helping Verbs of the Heart – was it a promise, a threat, a quote? In 1985, when Péter Esterházy's book came out on unnumbered, blackedged pages, this much-cited sentence seemed most likely to be the manifestation of authorial posturing. After the publication of his books on his father Celestial Harmonies and Revised Edition, this sentence and the preceding book on his mother's death, broken up into auxiliary verbs, now gain new meaning twenty-three years later in No Great Art. Péter Esterházy No Great Art Novel Approx. 240 pages. Hardcover To be published in February 2009

No Great Art is the book of the reawakened mother, a mother who knows the offside rule, and whose language, which determines her relationship to the world, is the language of football. The son only exists in relation to it, just as everything and everyone else only exists in relation

to this mother's football language.

Football, in the author's last book a stage and a medium for private historiography, now acts as a worldview, its roots in his relationship to his mother and his mother tongue: a mother's language complex.

Readers seeking 'family stories' in Péter Esterházy's novel will find them – in subtly written, rounded stories. Those looking for emotions will find them too: platonic love, marital love filled with tenderness, and of course love for his mother and father. And those interested in the esterházyesque auto-reflexive textual world (where does the author begin and end) will not be disappointed either. Irony, beauty, history, the Magnificent Magyars, father, grandmother, aunt, uncle, mother, life and death, especially death, but beautifully written. And life too, of course, which comes before death.

'My mother talked her way through the entire sixties and seventies in French. Boy, even comrade sounds bearable in French. She slipped into the French language as if into a bunker. No, a bunker would be more German, concrete protection; language is a lighter form of asylum, if danger were ahead it would provide no protection, a hiding place, a hideout, a wing under which one cannot shelter. Whenever she left French she immediately moved into football. One might say my mother was on the run her whole life long. And one might also say that she was happy her whole life long.'

Péter Esterházy was born in 1950 into a family belonging to Hungary's oldest aristocratic dynasties. In 1951 the family was dispossessed by the Communists and banished to a remote village.

In 1957 they were allowed to return to Budapest. He studied mathematics at the University of Budapest's department of Natural Sciences, and began his career as a writer in 1978. He is a member of the German Acadamy for Language and Literature, and lives in Budapest with his family.

2004 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 2004 Grinzane Cavour Prize 2002 Herder Prize 2001 Hungarian Literature Prize 2001 Sándor Márai Prize

1999 Austrian National Prize for European Literature 1996 Kossuth Prize 1993 Premio Opera di Poesia 1986 József Attila Prize

© Berlin Verlag

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FICTION

Gerhard Falkner Bruno 'Bruno is an event!' WAZ In the summer of 2006, a brown bear was wandering wild between Austria and Bavaria. For one side, it was a protected animal and a challenge for conservationists; for the authorities he was a 'problem bear' that was finally shot and killed. This is the material Falkner has worked into his multi-faceted artist's novella.

A German writer comes to Leuk in Switzerland. On his arrival, he reads in the press that the brown bear Bruno has also made an appearance in the Valais.

The author develops a growing obsession, initially impenetrable, with seeing the bear in person. He begins an absurd

search with hidden bait, missed tracks, existential turning points and bizarre encounters in the magnificently described, 'Stifteresque' Swiss Alps. At first glance, the novella is a nature tale, but on closer inspection it is the story of failure on every level developed in the text.

The longed-for encounter, in truth also the longed-for encounter with himself, ends in a grotesque, as does the furious attempt at a revolt.

Bruno is a bear of a story, there is no doubt. But above all it is a multi-layered contemporary artist's novella of powerful language and images, in which the poet Gerhard Falkner pays tribute to Hemingway and Adalbert Stifter.

Gerhard Falkner Bruno Novella 112 pages. Hardcover Published in May 2008

'The incomparable Gerhard Falkner!' Armin Kratzert, Bayerisches Fernsehen 'Stunning: Poetry meets irony!' Sächsische Zeitung 'Falkner has put out the wildest, most exciting animal novella in the literary sense that has been printed for a long time. If you're going to the mountains this year – don't go without Falkner.' Die Welt 'Bruno ought to go out among the people as soon as possible.' Marcel Beyer 'The bear may be lying dead in a puddle of blood at the end of this novella, but the story definitely continues: in our heads, where Bruno lives on thanks to Gerhard Falkner's writing.' BR-online 'Brilliant written and with a serene profoundness.' WAZ

© Berlin Verlag

Gerhard Falkner, born in 1951, is now unarguably one of the most important German-language contemporary poets. He has published the poetry volumes Wemut (1989), X-te Person Einzahl (1996), Endogene Gedichte (2000) and most recently Gegensprechstadt – ground zero (2005).

He has also edited anthologies such as AmLit. Neue Literatur aus den USA (1992) and Budapester Szenen. Jüngste Lyrik aus Ungarn (1999). Falkner lives in Berlin and Bavaria.

2008 Kranichsteiner Literature Prize 2006 Spycher Literature Prize Leuk 2004 Schiller Prize

2003 Schloss Solitude Fellowship 1987 Bavarian State Prize for Emerging Writers

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POEMS

Gerhard Falkner Hölderlin Repair 'What I have said is not what I have not said.' Gerhard Falkner

Gerhard Falkner Hölderlin Repair Poems 96 pages.

Published in November 2008

How can we harness the sublime in today's speech? The starting point for these poems is the high tone typical of Hölderlin. Yet, feigning the approach of historical-critical editions, the poetry is repeatedly shattered by play and theory and either driven to the main matter at hand, the autonomous poem, or further processed as poetic mass, as material, and brought to never-ending associability. Never, of course, without ignoring the irony of its inner logic. Poetry thus also becomes a conceptual undertaking as in the fine arts.

Yet the intention is unmistakable: reproducing the poem in its closed and moving form and, in the figurative sense, placing it within a network of references.

Hölderlin Repair is a book with a density of allusions perhaps not attempted since Ezra Pound.

Critics acclaimed Gerhard Falkner's last poetry volume, the long poem Gegensprechstadt – ground zero set in Berlin, as a poem of the century. With Hölderlin Repair, he returns to the innovative writing methods he developed in his now legendary collection wemut.

Björn Kuhligk On the Surface of the Earth 'Consistently contemporary and ruthlessly poetic.' Tagesspiegel

Björn Kuhligk On the Surface of the Earth Poems Approx. 86 pages.

To be published in March 2009

This new collection by the poet once proclaimed Germany's 'lyrical great white hope' finally establishes the Kuhligk sound as a legitimate phenomenon. That slightly snotty, never half-hearted, deliberately iconoclastic and immediately moving upright tone that marks Björn Kuhligk's poetry and lends it an unmistakable 'face made of elegance / and cheek'.

These poems are as if electrified, fed by the tension between heterogeneous worlds of experience. Kuhligk relocates urban fractures into nature, overlays authentic feelings with phrases. He lends social realities three-dimensionality in a handful of lines, standing out for one main thing: untamed vitality.

Björn Kuhligk Big Picture 76 pages.

Published February 2005

Björn Kuhligk In the End the Tourists Come 112 pages.

Published February 2002

POEMS

Ron Winkler Fragmented Waters 'Idiomatic esprit and bold images.'

Tagesspiegel These poems are 'guidelines for landscape tourists'. Ron Winkler takes the almost jaded metaphors won from nature that have been floating around in our language since the Romantic period and recharged in the fields of social matters, and uses them for a new description of nature. For him, the sensual experience of nature is always infiltrated by the presence of the media; 'nature' becomes a projection surface for a modern way of life.

'With great irony and linguistic creativity, Winkler's nature poems make him the lyrical spokesman of a new generation. He trips a pleasantly un-academic linguistic and philosophical light fantastic with incredible vitality and jaunty elegance.' Deutschlandradio 'These lines should be posted onto coffee machines as a good morning greeting. Or read aloud to your crush. Beautiful.' Einslive 'Ron Winkler succeeds in making use of the nature poem as a frame of reference for a modern way of life.' Leonce and Lena Prize 2005

Ron Winkler Fragmented Waters Poems 96 pages.

Published in February 2007

Jan Wagner Eighteen Pies 'Virtuoso.' Süddeutsche Zeitung

'Jan Wagner's new poetry collection is a pattern book of linguistic haute cuisine.'

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Jan Wagner Test Drilling in the Sky 80 pages.

Published February 2001

Jan Wagner Guericke's Sparrow 83 pages.

Published February 2004

'Jan Wagner is well known for his soufflé-light sonnets and intricate sestinas – the last time we read the like was perhaps in Baudelaire and Oskar Pastior.' Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2007 2006 2005 2004 2004 2004 2003 2001

Grant-holder at the Casa Baldi Arno Reinfrank Literature Prize Ernst Meister Prize Mondseer Poetry Prize Anna Seghers Prize Alfred Gruber Prize Christine Lavant Audience Award Hamburg Literature Prize for Emerging Writers 2001 Hermann Hesse Prize for Emerging Writers

Jan Wagner Eighteen Pies Poems 96 pages.

Published in August 2007

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FICTION BACKLIST

Fridolin Schley 'Impressively mature prose.' NZZ 'Schley's stories make readers prick up their ears. One reads these short stories at first with curiosity and then with a craving for the solution to the riddles they pose.' Süddeutsche Zeitung 'The 32-year-old author sets the book's six short stories in scene without a trace of song and dance, surprising his reader again and again with their unexpected twists and turns.'

Fridolin Schley Wild, Beautiful Animal Short stories 140 pages. Hardcover Published in August 2007

2007 Tukan Prize of the City of Munich 2006 PhD scholarship from the Protestant Student Foundation 2004 Günther Klinge Culture Prize 2001 Hermann Lenz Prize for Emerging Writers 2001 Bavarian State Prize for Emerging Writers

Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung

Matthias Göritz, Nikola Richter

Matthias Göritz Short Dream of Jacob Voss Novel 192 pages.

Published in August 2005

'Göritz tells us about how strange people are and how lonely puberty is, how utopia fail and about the aesthetic and political awfulness of the 1980s.' Die Literarische Welt 'The book title sounds like Fassbinder, and there are indeed parallels to his similarly pithy, poignant imagery. A successful debut.'

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Nikola Richter Ending it on an Island Short stories 144 pages.

Published in October 2007

When two people meet it's often a funny thing – strange, awkward, unsure one time, relaxed, confident, straight ahead the next.

Nikola Richter throws a spotlight on such city romances with high hopes and visions.

FICTION BACKLIST

Jan Peter Bremer 'Jan Peter Bremer is a specialist in the minimalist form, in playing little literary games.'

Süddeutsche Zeitung

'Little masterpieces, as dark, beautiful and beautifully polished as a black diamond.'

Deutschlandradio

'A joy for every reader.' Welt am Sonntag 'Lifted out of time, the volume floats on nothing but language, coming ominously close to the heart of literature and letters.'

Literarische Welt

Jan Peter Bremer Fire Salamander 112 pages.

Published February 2000

Jan Peter Bremer Palaces 235 pages. New edition Published in May 2006

Jan Peter Bremer Still Life 88 pages.

Published in Feburary 2008

1996 Ingeborg Bachmann Prize

Nina Jäckle 'Nina Jäckle is a true discovery!' Literaturen 'Jäckle's language is like music, tenderly, sometimes comically making storytelling the meaning of existence, even if one is lost for words in the end.' Glamour 'This literary debut is intricately woven and tremendously compelling. It's written with breathtaking precision and without a trace of sentimentality.' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung '…quiet, rather demanding, with a wonderful sense of rhythm.' Brigitte

Nina Jäckle There Are Some Short stories 134 pages.

Published in August 2002

Nina Jäckle Noll Novel 194 pages.

Published in March 2004 Sold to: France

Nina Jäckle Next Door Novel 126 pages.

Published in August 2006

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FICTION HISTORY

Werner Sonne If I Forget You, Jerusalem A passionate novel about the foundation of the state of Israel, telling gripping stories of the fates of individual Jews and Arabs.

Werner Sonne If I Forget You, Jerusalem Novel 286 pages. Hardcover Published in February 2008 Sold to: Netherlands

February 1947. Judith, a survivor of Dachau concentration camp, has come to Palestine to find her uncle in Jerusalem; she has no relatives left in Germany. When she hears of her uncle's death she attempts suicide. In hospital, she receives a transfusion of the blood of a student nurse, Hana, and makes friends with the young Arab woman. Hana is promised to her neighbour Joussef. But she wants to complete her training at the Hadassah Hospital –

and she loves a Jewish doctor. Joussef, his pride deeply wounded, joins the Mufti's men, who want to drive the Jews into the sea. The political situation comes to a head. When the UN accepts the plan to divide Palestine on 29 November 1947, violence erupts and the friendship between Judith and Hana is put to a tough test.

Werner Sonne, born in 1947, has been a television journalist for forty years, including long placements as a foreign and Berlin correspondent.

Tatjana Gräfin Dönhoff, Rainer Berg The Gustloff The novel about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff.

30 January 1945. The great luxury liner of the 1930s, the passenger ship Wilhelm Gustloff, is anchored in Danzig Bay. It is to take on board thousands of women, children and old people desperate to escape the approaching Russian army. Its destination of Kiel is a beacon of hope uniting all those on board.

Tatjana Gräfin Dönhoff / Rainer Berg The Gustloff Novel 320 pages. Hardcover Published in February 2008 Sold to: Czech Republic, Poland

In Gotenhafen, the navy auxiliary girl Erika Galetschky from Königsberg meets her lover Hellmut Kehding, who is to captain the Wilhelm Gustloff. At the last moment, Erika manages to cross her scheming superior and sneak on board.

The completely overcrowded ship leaves the harbour without sufficient escort vessels. As the commanders are still arguing over who is in charge, a Russian torpedo hits the ship.

Only a few of the almost 10,000 passengers survive the dramatic sinking of the ship in the dark cold of the Baltic Sea. Tatjana Gräfin Dönhoff is a freelance author and journalist. Her most recent book was the novel Die Flucht (2007). Dr. Rainer Berg has been writing screenplays since 1988. In 2002 he was awarded the Bavarian Television Prize.

FICTION SUSPENSE

Bernadette Calonego Under Dark Waters A women's search for the truth leads her on a dangerous trail across Canada.

'Precise and understanding in the psychology of the characters – a cold little display of pyrotechnics in the ice-cold North' Tages-Anzeiger 'Calonego wins over readers with thrilling and palatable writing.' Neue Züricher Zeitung 'Tension to the very last page and a little surprise to finish off: a book like this is great fun.'

Neue Presse

Bernadette Calonego Under Dark Waters Novel 384 pages. Hardcover Published in August 2007 Sold to: Netherlands

Hans Graf von der Goltz The Mission India 1957 – four men are to help the country to help itself. A tale of responsibility and humanity in the midst of a coolly calculated business world.

'Densely atmospheric, sensual prose full of moving images. Laconically terse and to the point. This narrator has a virtuoso command of insinuation, sketches made up of a handful of words that still contain the essence of the matter. A brilliant business novel.'

Literarische Welt

'Goltz has learned his trade as a writer well. A young generation wanting to draw new conclusions from the current discussions on business ethics would do well to train their powers of thought on this novel.'

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Hans Graf von der Goltz The Mission Novel 208 pages. Hardcover Published in October 2007

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FICTION SUSPENSE

Moritz Wulf Lange Little Aster. Dallinger's First Case Berlin's most likeable private eye!

Moritz Wulf Lange Little Aster.

Dallinger's First Case Approx. 260 pages. Hardcover To be published in February 2009

Central Berlin: the rain has been coming down outside for hours. Inside, the office smells musty, the rusty radiator is gurgling away, and the coffee machine is gasping for air. Private eye Michael Dallinger is typing up yet another report about a cheating wife when he gets a call from his uncle, old Father Broock. A distant acquaintance of Broock, the cemetery caretaker Richard Molinski, is being stalked. Dallinger reluctantly starts investigating. One day later, the caretaker is dead, his body cruelly mutilated.

On the hunt for the murderer, Dallinger comes across a link between his uncle's past and that of the victim. The trail takes him back to a 1950's children's home and the last days of the war. There is only one conclusion he can come to: Broock must know Molinski's killer. But why won't he say anything?

'What more can one ask for but a good warming scare?' DIE ZEIT

Moritz Wulf Lange was born in Hamburg in 1971. He has written a number of audio versions of Henning Mankell's Wallander books, among others. His own audio series Edgar Allan Poe (under the pseudonym Melchior Hala) was nominated for the German Audiobook Award in 2006. The accompanying novel Lebendig begraben was published in 2007. Moritz Wulf Lange lives in Berlin and on the River Oste near BremervĂśrde.

Š Kai Bienert

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NON-FICTION

Irina Liebmann Would it be nice? It would be nice!

The story of a man who took his life seriously in dangerous times.

He was passionate and sardonic, humorous and radical, one of the most brilliant journalists Germany had; but he wanted more. And he devoted himself to an ambitious task: building a society in which every individual could develop their skills. This vision was destined for tragic failure. Rudolf Herrnstadt (19031966) was the eloquent and best-known journalist of the Eastern Zone and the early GDR, before being expelled from the Socialist Unity Party and exiled to the provinces. Originating from a bourgeois Jewish family in industrial Upper Silesia, he had recognised the rise of fascism at an early point and decided not to escape but to fight against it. He became a

communist, setting his personal career aside to work for his party wherever he was needed. His life and writings took him from Berlin to Prague to Warsaw to Moscow and then back to Berlin, where he accompanied the Red Army's arrival and helped set up the first of the city's newspapers, then the Eastern Zone's press. In the early years of the GDR he was to head the party newspaper, taking an offensive stand for its propaganda but always using his position to set new initiatives in motion. He was to be the first to make a public call for more democracy and demand that people be treated with respect. In 1953 he was expelled from the Socialist Unity Party as an 'enemy of the party,' and his existence was ignored from then on.

'This book truly deserves the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair!' Klaus Harpprecht, DIE ZEIT

Irina Liebmann Would it be nice? It would be nice!

My father Rudolf Herrnstadt 416 pages. Hardcover Published in March 2008 www.irina-liebmann.de Sold to: France

'Irina Liebmann always has an eye for the whole period. She uses various text forms, giving her biography pace through her terse style. Gigantic material, great plot moving and exciting from beginning to end.' Focus 'Irina Liebmann has pulled off a little masterpiece.' Literarische Welt 'A fascinating book about a wild and broken life.' Thea Dorn, SĂźdwestrundfunk 'A magnificent combination of world, German and private history.' Literaturen 'Post-war German history has rarely been told like this. From the first to the last page, this book about a passionate, wise and very contradictory man is a declaration of love to a father.' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Š Isolde Ohlbaum

Irina Liebmann, born in 1943, studied Chinese studies in Leipzig. She has been a freelance author since 1975, living in East and later West Berlin.

2008 Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2001 Guest lecturer at Oberlin College, Ohio 1998 Berlin Literature Prize 1989 Aspekte Literature Prize 1987 Ernst Willner Prize at the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition in Klagenfurt

Irina Liebmann Berlin Tenement 218 pages Published January 2002

Irina Liebmann The Free Women Novel 240 pages Published September 2004 Sold to: Czech Republic, France

Irina Liebmann In the Midst of War 224 pages Republished March 2006

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NON-FICTION

Viktor Jerofejew The Russian Apocalypse Pointed essays about Russia's many faces, Russian hedonists and patriots, and their ongoing struggle for democracy and liberty.

'You know there was a coup d'etat in our country? What do you mean, when? It's impossible to say the precise date, as there wasn't one. It was just that a wind came up, the sky clouded over and the rain set in. There you have the whole coup.'

Viktor Jerofejew The Russian Apocalypse Originally written in Russian language Approx. 304 pages. Hardcover To be published in February 2009

With caustic wit, Jerofejew comments on the state-controlled change in Russia's weather, caused by invisible figures guiding the nation towards an unknown des-

tination. And anyone who nevertheless loves their country has to put up with the question: does it love you back? As Jerofejew satirizes the state of the Russian nation, the reader chokes on his laughter – behind all the provocation, the author's concern for his country shines through. A country where Jerofejew is convinced the apocalypse is nigh. His view of the lifestyles of the nouveau riches and politicians, of ideal husbands, writers, friends or housewives prove him an expert on the Russian soul. But that soul is hanging in the balance, undecided between the experiences of the past and the challenges of the present.

'One of the most important chroniclers of these turbulent and frighteningly fascinating past decades in Russia.' DIE ZEIT 'Russia has not seen so much linguistic wit, coupled with everyday humour and exposure strategy, for many a year.' Der Spiegel

Viktor Jerofejew De Profundis Stories 136 pages.

Published August 2008 Viktor Jerofejew The Good Stalin Novel 364 pages.

Published February 2004 Sold to: France, Italy, China, Greece, Romania, Estonia, Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary, Finland, Slovenia, Latvia

'Viktor Jerofejew is a key figure for understanding contemporary Russian literature, in which the writer and literary scholar has made many marks.' Deutschlandradio 'Nobody finds such witty and appropriate formulations for the state of the Russian soul as Jerofejew.' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Viktor Jerofejew, born in Moscow in 1947, is one of Russia's leading authors. He has presented the weekly talk show Apokryph on literature, culture and society for several years, and writes regularly for the New Yorker, Mare, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Welt. He also edited the first Russian Nabokov edition.

© Jenia Dürer

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NON-FICTION

Michael Klonovsky The Pain of Beauty A homage to Puccini.

To this very day, Puccini's operas are a unique success story, yet the composer himself is often dismissed as secondrate. Michael Klonovsky gives a passionate explanation of why Puccini is nevertheless one of the great figures in musical history.

The man whose works still dominate the world's opera stages as no other seems not to have been a first-rate composer – going by his reception in the specialist literature, at least. This is a scandalous misunderstanding, says the Puccini admirer Michael Klonovsky – after all, his music has transported millions of listeners into veritable emotional euphoria and moved them to tears.

Who, except perhaps Mozart, has given the world more musical tenderness than Puccini? For Klonovsky, the embarkation scene from Manon Lescaut, the 'Te Deum' from Tosca or the terrifyingly ominous 'Che tua madre' from Madame Butterfly are among the high points of musical history, just like Turandot and the all but forgotten Il Tabarro, from the first to the last bar.

The Pain of Beauty aims to rehabilitate this musical genius at long last. This passionately written, well-researched portrait of Puccini and his art is a charming homage to a true master of his art, to a man, according to Klonovsky, who has given some of the greatest gifts to human history.

Michael Klonovsky The Pain of Beauty On Giacomo Puccini Approx. 288 pages. Hardcover 10 b/w illustrations Published in October 2008 www.michael-klonovsky.de

© Stefanie H. Graul

Michael Klonovsky, born in 1962, is a writer and journalist. His novels include Land der Wunder (2005) and Der Ramses-Code (2001). He works as a duty editor for Focus magazine and lives in Munich. He received the Wächter Award for critical reporting in 1991.

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NON-FICTION BACKLIST

Michael Maar Solus Rex A moving portrait of Nabokov – a singular artist who disappeared inside his own work in the end like the Chinese painter.

Michael Maar Solus Rex The Bad and Beautiful World of Vladimir Nabokov 208 pages.

Published September 2007

'Decoding Nabokov's books is an art form in itself, and Maar has a masterly command of it. Like Nabokov, Maar too lays trails for his readers, letting them follow red herrings only to amaze them with a surprisingly simple solution. Anyone who enters into a journey with Maar through the labyrinthine world of Nabokov's writing will be rewarded with valuable insights. Masterly.' Neue Zürcher Zeitung 'Makes one want to read Nabokov straight away.' Die Literarische Welt

'The most beautiful book written to date on the lonely king of the novelists.'

Rheinischer Merkur

2005 Fellow of the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation 2002 Guest professor, Stanford 2001 Baden-Württemberg Essay Grant 2000 Lessing Criticism Prize 1998 Lower Saxony Foundation Essay Grant 1997 Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin 1995 Johann Heinrich Merck Prize 1995 Ernst Robert Curtius Prize for Emerging Essayists

Susanne Kippenberger Kippenberger. The Artist and his Families 'One of the best art books in a long time.' Berliner Zeitung

Susanne Kippenberger Kippenberger.

The Artist and his Families 576 pages.

80 b/w Illustrations Published February 2007

A touching book remembering Martin Kippenberger, the bad boy of the German art world who died young and infamous for his artistic iconoclasm and provocative life, through the eyes of his sister. Martin Kippenberger was one of the most influential and successful German post-war artists. He took part in the Biennale and documenta, and was awarded the Käthe Kollwitz Prize. There were two major exhibitions of his work at the Tate Modern, London, and the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, in 2006.

Further exhibitions will take place at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles followed by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2009.

'Martin Kippenberger lives!' Monopol 'The most insightful portrait of Martin Kippenberger to date.' Süddeutsche Zeitung 'A monumental portrayal of the irretrievable Cologne years.' Literaturen

NON-FICTION BACKLIST

Haralampi G. Oroshakoff The Battenberg Affair A fascinating family novel and a great European story Haralampi G. Oroshakoff tells the adventurous tale of his Russian family, its fates inextricably linked with the Oriental power struggles of the 19th century. Die Battenberg-Affäre is a journey of discovery into a bygone era, a magnificent story interweaving history and fiction to form an epic work of art.

'The book is much more than a family story. It is the story of southeast Europe since the collapse and end of the Ottoman Empire.

Absolutely fascinating.' Cicero 'Anyone who really wants to understand the recent entanglements in the Balkans should emerge themselves in this great historical narrative.' Der Spiegel 'This magnificent family saga shows common factors, depicts irreconcilable differences. More convincing than many a history book.' Bild

Haralampi G. Oroshakoff The Battenberg Affair.

The Life and Adventures of Gavril Oroshakov or A Russian-European Story 768 pages with Illustrations Published Oktober 2007 Sold to: Bulgaria

Manfred Weber-Lamberdière The Ferran Adrià Revolution 'The best chef in the world.'

New York Times For Ferran Adrià, every dish is an original. He puts the idea of the permanent revolution in the kitchen into practice as no other has and the gourmet world waits with baited breath to discuss the unique new taste chords when Adrià presents his new collection every April.

Manfred Weber-Lamberdière paints a lively portrait of the most influential chef of our times, offering a fascinating insight into his culinary laboratory and the universe of haute cuisine.

'The most entertaining piece ever written on the history of Grande Cuisine and its protagonists. The road from Escoffier's heavyweight cuisine to Adrià's molecular creations is mapped out so convincingly and amusingly that you may well forget the Christmas roast in the oven.' SonntagsZeitung 'A delicious book.' Westfälischer Anzeiger 'Al dente pleasure.' Celebrity Manfred Weber-Lamberdière The Ferran Adrià Revolution.

How a Catalan Made Cooking an Art With an Afterword by Ferran Adrià 256 pages with Photos.

Published September 2007 Sold to: France, Korea, Brazil

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NON-FICTION

Kerstin Holm Rubens in Siberia Stolen art – surprising aspects of an explosive subject.

Kerstin Holm Rubens in Siberia Stolen art from Germany in the Russian provinces 160 pages. Hardcover.

15 b/w illustrations Published in February 2008

There is barely any aspect of relations between Germany and Russia as controversial and complex as how to deal with the works of art stolen during and after World War II. A huge number of works of art and other cultural items were looted as trophies of war by German soldiers in Russia and later by Russian soldiers on German territory. Up to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow strictly denied the existence of these stolen artworks in Russian collections. But since the early 1990s, it has emerged that not only the major museums such as the Hermitage in St. Petersburg contain stolen art from Germany. Army units had also taken or sold looted artworks all the way to the provinces, ending up in Nishni Novgorod, Tula and Irkutsk.

Kerstin Holm spent sixteen years as a cultural correspondent, going through Russia's provincial museums with a fine-toothed comb. She unearthed pictures from Berlin, Potsdam and Schwerin, revealing much about the weaknesses of those who stole them and even more about the Russian painting now all around them.

Holm takes a highly unconventional approach to the subject of stolen art, posing surprising questions. How was and is this very different art received? To what extent did the sudden confrontation with “Western” views and representations of the world affect Russian art and those who viewed it? This impressive book makes it clear that the subject of stolen art has a human and art history dimension alongside its political and legal aspects.

'The best overview to date on the inextricable problem of looted art.' Berliner Zeitung 'Excitingly unconventional.' taz 'Highly competent.' Süddeutsche Zeitung 'Precisely researched and a fascinating read.' Literaturen 'It is extremely fortunate that Kerstin Holm knows most of the debate's protagonists personally and can explain the standpoints on all sides.' Die Welt

Kerstin Holm, born in Hamburg, started out as a humanities editor for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 1987. She has been the newspaper's cultural correspondent in Moscow since 1991. Her panorama of Russia, Das korrupte Imperium, was published in 2003.

© Valeri Belenkow

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NON-FICTION

Andreas Weber Organic Capital How can we make business humane, preserve nature and rediscover happiness?

Nowadays, we are facing a chain of almost insolvable problems: the loss of climate stability and natural diversity, the galloping globalisation and the widening gulf between rich and poor – but also the restlessness, hectic lifestyles and meaningless lives from which the inhabitants of the wealthier regions suffer.

For Andreas Weber, all these problems can be traced back to a single cause: a religion of the economy, which subordinates everything to growth and which is based on ideas rooted in a false image of life and a false conception of humanity.

Weber describes and calls for a new 'ecological economy' that works with nature rather than against it. He is convinced that health, mental contentment, eco-

logical growth and a lasting, just and forward-looking economy are only possible in concert – and that this is where true progress lies.

In his clear and intelligent book, Weber presents pioneers of the real 'sustainable turn', for instance the economist Robert Costanza, the first person to calculate the total value of all the planet's services.

And he visits model locations such as the small town of Varese in the Ligurian mountains and a hidden Alpine valley, both of which have converted to clear circular economies, generating high profits with green business and rising to above average on the happiness scale.

Only a new economy of real wellbeing – an economy of happiness – can bring the turning point, make lasting use of the wealth of nature and thus preserve our humanity.

'Weber artfully arranges scientific knowledge and philosophical reflection, literary quotes and personal experiences of nature. And the author creates passages with great poetic force – for instance when looking into the cosmos of a toad's eye or comparing molecular activity with a bazaar.' Geo on Feeling Life

Andreas Weber Organic Capital The reconciliation of the economy, nature and humanity 240 pages. Hardcover Published in October 2008 Sold to: Korea

Andreas Weber Feeling Life. Nature and the Revolution of the Life Sciences 172 pages.

Published February 2007

© Bernd Dinkel/GEO

Andreas Weber, born in 1967, studied biology and philosophy in Berlin, Freiburg, Hamburg and Paris. He is now a freelance writer, journalist and editor, writing regular articles for major magazines and newspapers including GEO. Andreas Weber lives in Berlin with his wife and two children.

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NON-FICTION

Wolfram Eilenberger Little People, Big Questions Who teaches our children for life? Adults. And who teaches the adults for life? Philosophy!

Wolfram Eilenberger Little People, Big Questions 20 philosophical stories for the adults of today – and tomorrow Approx. 160 pages. Hardcover To be published in February 2009

Wolfram Eilenberger Philosophy for People Who Want to Make it 222 pages.

Published August 2005 Sold to: Korea

This is a stimulating and entertaining book about questions as deep as life itself, a wonderfully playful yet serious introduction to philosophy. According to Kant, it is man's fate to ask questions that go unanswered. But he didn't write anything about how even very young children ask their parents unanswerable questions. In fact, the 'metaphysical child' is a perfectly normal phenomenon – as every mother and father will agree. 'What if you'd never met mum?', 'Might I have been a boy?', 'Did you want me the way I am?', 'Where has

grandpa gone?', 'Is God watching us right now?' – questions that both fascinate and unsettle us adults. All too often, what might have been the start of an interesting conversation ends up with a quick-fire appeasement or a jokey distraction. That's not the end of the world, but it is a missed opportunity.

For Wolfram Eilenberger, these questions are nothing less than a challenge to us 'grown-ups' to think for ourselves.

Or to put it another way, they are a springboard into the world of philosophy. Clear, surprising and down to earth, Eilenberger familiarises us with the ways in which philosophy has looked at life's big questions.

'This is no semi-academic compendium of philosophical knowledge, but a collection of humorous personal reports that take the reader straight from reflecting to deep thinking.' Der Tagesspiegel 'The book stands out a mile from the usual advice books with their magic formulae.'

Deutschlandfunk

Wolfram Eilenberger, a father of twins and a doctor of philosophy, is a correspondent for Cicero magazine, a columnist for Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper and a freelance writer.

Wolfram Eilenberger lives in Bloomington/Indiana and Berlin with his family.

© Dan Wesker

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GIFT BOOK

Gila Lustiger Mr Grinberg & Co. A philosophical novel about happiness!

With loving detail, imagination and wit, Gila Lustiger sketches the everyday adventures of an older gentleman, a little girl and her friends. They mourn, argue, make discoveries and fall in love, ending up in charmingly comic situations. And again and again, they stumble as if by accident over the great eternal questions of humankind.

Mr Grinberg likes nothing better than hiding behind his newspaper; his interests are world events and crosswords.

But one evening he discovers Paul, a boy from the neighbourhood, freezing and exhausted on a park bench. When he carries him home he finds out why the

boy ran away – his beloved grandmother is on her deathbed. Soon there are plenty of people wondering how best to help Paul. And they include Paul's nosy, hard-boiled friend Paula Mathilda, who has an unshakable opinion on everything. She decides Mr Grinberg will have to take the place of Paul's grandmother.

Mr Grinberg suddenly remembers a mysterious book from his youth: the Book of Questions. And by chance he also notices he's fallen in love with his housekeeper…

Mr Grinberg & Co. is a philosophical novel for all, a parable for understanding and openness. A perfect gift book!

Gila Lustiger Mr Grinberg & Co. A story about happiness Illustrated by Vitali Konstantinov 186 pages. Hardcover Published in February 2008 Sold to: Korea

'Full of charm and playful reflection. Magical!' Neue Ruhr Zeitung 'Gila Lustiger's novel is no pretence; it really is a story about happiness. The like of which, in this form, in this lightness yet depth, has not been around for a long time.' Literarische Welt 'A humorous everyday adventure, 185 entertaining pages distinguished by a virtually effervescent art of invention and a good portion of humour.' Jüdische Allgemeine 'Lustiger's book is so wise and yet the stories in it are so mischievous that readers large and small will enjoy it.' Berliner Zeitung

© Lillian Birnbaum

Gila Lustiger was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1963. She studied German and comparative literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has been a freelance writer in Paris since 1987. Her family novel about the history of the European Jews So sind wir (2005) was shortlisted for the German Book Prize.

Vitali Konstantinov, born in Bessarabia in 1963, is a freelance artist and illustrator and has lived in Germany since 1996. He studied architecture in Russia and graphic art, painting and art history in Germany. He illustrates and writes for children and adults.

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Translated by Katy Debyshire

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