2010 FOREIGN RIGHTS Berlin Verlag Bloomsbury Berlin Berliner Taschenbuch Verlag
FICTION
2
‘How many German writers are there actually, whose career began after 1945 and to whom one can attest originality and format? Perhaps only five? Wolfdietrich Schnurre is one of the small number of writers that stand up to them.’ MARCEL REICH-RANICKI
Wolfdietrich Schnurre A Life A picture story with tasks to solve 58 pages
Wolfdietrich Schnurre, born in Frankfurt am Main in 1920, was an involuntary soldier for six and a half years. He began writing upon his r eturn to Berlin in 1945. Along with Hans W erner Richter and Alfr ed Andersch, Schnurr e was a cofounder of the legendar y Gruppe 47, with his short stor y Das Begräbnis (The Burial) read at the opening meeting. Over the years, writers such as Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass and Ingeborg Bachmann joined the literary group. Like many of his contemporaries, Schnurr e was a thor oughly political writer, drawing attention to injustices and pr otesting – be it against the construction of the Berlin Wall or in support of the student movement. Wolfdietrich Schnurre was awarded numerous prizes, including the Federal Cross of Merit, the Cologne Literature Prize and the highly pr estigious Georg Büchner Prize. He died in Kiel in 1989.
‘The Shadow Photographer is a hundred books in one. A library. A miracle.’ WELT AM SONNTAG This book r eads like a diar y, one of the quality of Max Frisch’s jour nals. It opens with a date (August 1976) and closes with a date (10 Januar y 1977), and features the obligator y autobiographical element: Schnurr e’s childhood with his father, the war, sickness, pain and death, but also happiness. About family, reading, knowing and writing. Yet this book is much more than that. Schnurre depicts an entire human memory in short notes fr om everyday life and brilliant aphorisms, through quotes and drafts for novels, through fictitious letters and poems. And Schnurr e’s memor y is a testament to intellectual agility, a convolute of mental wealth and abundance. The focus of this, his most personal book, is on Schnurr e himself, as a man, a father , a partner, a son and a writer – generating a closeness rarely found in literature, yet remaining absolutely discreet.
Wolfdietrich Schnurre The Shadow Photographer Novel With a foreword by Wilhelm Genazino 532 pages
Wolfdietrich Schnurre When my Father cut off his Beard Father and son stories
Wolfdietrich Schnurre My Father’s Red Beard Father and son stories
Wolfdietrich Schnurre Something like Happiness Short Stories
Wolfdietrich Schnurre’s short stories are among the classics of the twentieth century
Wolfdietrich Schnurre was one of the first writers to bring the American short story in the tradition of Poe, Hemingway and Faulkner to Germany , and he instantly became a master of the short form. His stories focus on ‘people as they are: maltreated, oppressed, guilt-laden, persecuted and accursed.’ They form a brotherhood with society’s weak, insignificant and marginal characters, the war still ever-present between the lines. Schnurre writes about society from a moral standpoint and yet from its centre, accusing and criticising in everyday jargon and awakening our sympathies. This volume collects Wolfdietrich Schnurre’s short stories written from 1945, in the immediate post-war years when he achieved a pr ominence similar to that of Heinrich Böll with Das Begräbnis or Man sollte dagegen sein, to 1965, the time of Funke im Reisig, probably his best-known stories today. Every one of them confirms his reputation as one of Germany’s most important post-war writers. ‘There is little to match Schnurre’s stories in recent German literature.’ NEUE ZÜRCHER ZEITUNG
Wolfdietrich Schnurre Spark in the Brushwood Short stories from 1945 to 1965 400 pages
FICTION
3
FICTION
4
New short stories by Ingo Schulze – a dedication to Italy! In 2007, Ingo Schulze moved into the Villa Massimo in Rome with his family for a year. Yet he cannot wax lyrical on temples, churches, frescos and paintings without catching sight of illegal immigrants, prostitutes and tourists. Set before a backdrop of mythical landscapes and ancient ruins, the everyday ordinary-extraordinary experiences Ingo Schulze describes in these stories take on an aspect of the exemplary – and yet remain vague and ambivalent. The present day becomes permeable for the layers of the past upon which we walk. These links are so expertly forged that the AS Roma shorts will remain as firmly in our memor y as an octopus that falls in love with the narrator, a Romanian odd-jobber outside a supermarket or Signor Candy Man, who fights against oblivion and once went East for the love of a woman. Matthias Hoch’s photos ar e also Italian sketches. Another guest at the V illa Massimo in 2005, his eye for Italy is precise and surprising. The images and texts come together to create a dialogue of austere poetry. Ingo Schulze Oranges and Angels Italian sketches 190 pages With 48 colour photographs by Matthias Hoch Published in May 2010 Sold to: Italy, Netherlands
Ingo Schulze was born in Dresden in 1962 and studied Classics in Jena. He has lived in Berlin since 1993. His books have won numerous awards and are translated into more than thirty languages. Matthias Hoch was born in Radebeul near Dresden in 1958 and lives in Leipzig. After studying photography at the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts (HGB), he became a master-class student there. His work has featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Germany and abroad.
Ingo Schulze What do we want? Essays 256 pages. October 2009
Ingo Schulze Adam and Evelyn Novel. 314 pages. Sold to: Sweden, Italy, Brazil, France, Finland, Netherlands, Hungary, Czech Rep., Spain, Catalan, Denmark, USA, Korea, Macedonia, Lithuania, Greece, Iceland, Turkey, Albania, Arabic, Bulgaria, Russia, Romania, Slovenia, Vietnam
Ingo Schulze Cell Phone Thirteen Stories in the Old Style Short Stories 280 pages. Sold to: USA, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungaria, Korea, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Norway, Romania, Serbia, Slowenia, Marcedonia, Brazil, Portugal
Ingo Schulze New Lives Novel 794 pages. Sold to: USA, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Catalonia, Slovac Republic, Korea, Sweden, Hungaria, Brazil
Ingo Schulze Simple Storys 304 pages. 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, China
Ingo Schulze 33 Moments of Happiness Novel 272 pages. Sold to: USA, UK, France, Israel, Russia, Estonia, Netherlands, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Croatia, Bulgaria, Korea, Romania
‘The best insights are the things we find unexpectedly.’ HENNING RITTER
Henning Ritter’s Notebooks follow a longstanding literary tradition, from the French Moralists to Paul Valéry’s Cahiers. What interests the author most is the intellectual competition between the epochs and traditions, the unsolved tasks of the past and the lessons they hold. The r esult is a conversation between the most independent thinkers from the Enlightenment to the present day, from Montaigne to Nietzsche and Darwin, from Büchner to Canet to, Jünger and many mor e – with r ecurring motifs and themes, such as the role of pity and memory in today’s society or the competition between politics and culture in German history. The notes range between the laconic briefness of the aphorism and the short essay; they are unplanned, jotted down in a notebook that was always at hand: – ‘mental building blocks that must be turned over and over’ (Goethe). Henning Ritter, born 1943, was responsible for the humanities section at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from 1985 to 2008. Numerous publications, including as the editor of the German editions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s collected writings and Montesquieu’s Mes Pensées. He was awar ded an honorary doctorate by the University of Hamburg in the year 2000 and holds the Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge Prize and the Ludwig Börne Prize.
Henning Ritter Notebooks 426 pages Published in September 2010
‘There is only one thing I can do: pay for my mistakes.’ A timeless love story set before the backdrop of the student movement and its liberation from authoritarian structures: Oskar Marwig, a respected architect, falls in love with the student Ida. She finds his maturity and confidence attractive, yet at the same time she knows she will one day have to leave him for that very reason. Oskar senses that too, intensifying his possessiveness all the more. The r elationship is too much for both of them, r endering them weak and sick. Ida’s only option is to take a radical step. With great elegance, Elisabeth Plessen tells a story about the 1970s and the end of politicisation, discovering for us a language that seems both sober and rich. Ida is a tale of emancipation, one that faces up to the irrationalities of relationships. And it is a novel about ar chitecture, which Elisabeth Plessen captures in space and transforms into literature. Elisabeth Plessen has published five novels, three short story collections and a book of poetry, and translated numerous plays into German, notably Shakespeare’s dramas. Her books include Mitteilung an den Adel (1976), Kohlhaas (1979) and Das Kavalierhaus (2004). She recently edited the memoirs of her long-term partner, the theatre director Peter Zadek, Die Wanderjahre.
Elisabeth Plessen Ida Novel 352 pages Published in August 2010
FICTION
5
FICTION
6
‘Grey, my dear friend, is all theory; but the cover! The cover is as violet as a bishop!’ Péter Esterházy’s first novel caused a huge sensation upon its publication in Hungary in 1979, becoming a cult hit. A novel in two parts. Part I is a magnificent parody of a ‘production novel’ – the genre in which the writers of the communist hemisphere were expected to ‘reflect’ working-class life according to the doctrine of socialist realism. Esterházy portrays the work routine in a mathematical institute, the comedy of errors of the computing engineer Imre and his comrade Director-General Gregory Peck, both under the spell of the blonde secretary Marilyn Monroe. But any production promised in the title is swamped by a flood of paperwork prompted by a gr otesque slapstick sear ch for a lost study . This part of the novel is dotted with poems, folk songs and parliamentary speeches.
Péter Esterházy A Production Novel (Two Production Novels) Novel Approx. 512 pages Published in October 2010 The original edition was published in 1979 under the title Termelési-regény (kisssregény) by Magvetó, Budapest Sold to France, Russia
Péter Esterházy Celestial Harmonies Novel 922 pages Sold to: Sweden, Italy, Brazil, France, Netherlands, Spain, Croatia, Denmark, USA, Korea, Greece, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia, Norway, Poland
Péter Esterházy Corrected Edition Novel 372 pages Sold to: Italy, France, Netherlands, Spain, Croatia, Denmark, Serbia, Slovakia, Romania, Poland
Part II is entitled ‘E’s N otes’. The chr onicler Peter Eckermann (or Péter Esterházy?) reports full of admiration and respect, yet with great enjoyment, on the conditions under which Part I was written by the ‘master’ (Goethe? Péter Esterházy?), on his private life, his deportation, his career as a footballer and a father, his start as a writer – in scenes of merciless quotidian banality. This is in fact a ‘production novel’ in the Esterházian sense, a novel about the production of a novel and an incr edible affront in times of the dominant ’reflection theory’, the birth of modernism in Hungarian literature. Péter Esterházy was born in 1950 into a family belonging to Hungary's oldest aristocratic dynasties. 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 Literatur e, and lives in Budapest with his family. 2004 Grinzane Cavour Prize for European Literature 2004 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 2002 Herder Prize 2001 Sándor Márai Prize 2001 Hungarian Literature Prize 1999 Austrian National Prize 1996 Kossuth Prize 1993 Premio Opera di Poesia 1986 József Attila Prize Péter Esterházy No Great Art Novel 240 pages February 2009 Sold to: Slovakia, Romania, USA, Poland, Sweden, Spain, Croatia, Italy, France, Turkey, Netherlands
Strange Birds Fly Past In her new book, Keto von Waberer writes about childhood, her own childhood – a brief text so vivid and dense, so upright and precise that it conjures up an entire cosmos, full of secrets and strange birds. We discover the world of the 1950s and 60s through the eyes of an extremely watchful girl hungry for life and love. She ha s a passionate heart for many indiv iduals, above all her handsome, distant father a nd as a counterpoint her c lever, melancholy mother. Then there are Herr Semmlacher with the wooden hand who catches the voles in the gar den, Grandmother Rosa Auristella fr om Bolivia and Ida Leis, the washerwoman with hands like two boiled animals. There is little that goes unnoticed for this child, especially the things adults try to hide from her, and she eventually discovers just how rebellious she can be. In her very own language, Keto von W aberer grants us insights into a world rich in wonders, a world of an unusual childhood. Seltsame Vögel fliegen vorbei is a rare gift to readers. Keto von Waberer studied in Munich and Mexico, and has worked as an architect, translator, journalist and writer. She taught creative writing at the University of Television and Film, Munich, from 1998 onwards. The awardwinning writer is now a freelance author and lives in Munich.
Keto von Waberer Strange Birds Fly Past Approx. 180 pages March 2011
'Nina Jäckle is a true discovery!' LITERATUREN She has left her name, her country, her city and her language behind her, and the new city is Sevilla. She has plenty of money, yet she does not start a new life. She i s waiting – for her l over, her accomplic e, who has sent her a head with the stolen money. But with every day that passes without a message from him, the waiting gradually transforms into a life on her own. Almost unnoticed, the unfamiliar city , the unfamiliar language, br eak into her vacuum, taking possession of her, changing her until she realises she is no longer prepared to share the money and her life with him. Her plan is perfectly logical: no one will miss a man on the run… With her characteristic pr ecision and musicality, Nina Jäckle writes about forgetting and disappearing into another language, about the uncontrollable dynamics of life itself. Nina Jäckle was born in the Black Forest in 1966. She has received numerous literary awards and grants, inc luding the Hamburg Literary Prize for young writers, the Karlsruhe radio play award, and working grants from the German Literature Fund, the Land Baden-Württemberg and the Heinrich Heine Fund. She has published several books with Berlin Verlag: Es gibt solche (2000), Noll (2004) and Gleich nebenan (2006).
Nina Jäckle Sevilla Novel 180 pages Published in March 2010
FICTION
7
FICTION
8
‘A language that is poetic yet never hermetic.’ SWR Overstepping boundaries is an imperative of our times, an imperative of art. But what does it actually mean? Daniela Dröscher sends her characters far away from the familiar trodden paths of everyday life. And the people change there, even if they hadn’t been expecting to. These stories have their very own wit and dark depths, impossible to resist. They combine the appar ently incompatible entities of poetr y and politics. They dissect the lies upon which lives are built, so sharply that they reveal the entire ridiculousness of our own existences. Our own shame, paranoia or carelessness cheats us out of what we might call happiness or simply the perfect moment.
Daniela Dröscher Gloria Short stories 208 pages. Hardcover Published in September 2010
Daniela Dröscher, born in Munich in 1977, studied German and English literature and philosophy. She received the Essay Prize of the Young Academy Berlin in 2005 and the Schiller Essay Prize of the City of Weimar. Her debut novel Die Lichter des George Psalmanazar was published in 2009, winning her the A nna S eghers P rize. Gloria has been awar ded the Martha Saalfeld Emerging Writers’ Prize and the Georg K. Glaser Emerging Writers’ Prize.
‘What a crying shame you’re not going to India! What a crying shame you’re withering away here like an old apple!’
Anna Katharina Fröhlich Kream Korner Novel 160 pages. Hardcover Published in September 2010
‘Let us climb in our dr eams, since the hobnails in our boots keep us her e below!’ (Flaubert) This is the motto of a beautiful young woman who lives a life against the current with her witty and elegant aunt an d travels to India, determined to find beauty and meaning in life and to follow the spirit of laughter. ‘But what man could entertain me in the evening after I’ve spent the afternoon with Herodotus?’ wonders the young woman as she browses through marriage advertisements, only to follow he r clever aunt’s example and plunge herself all the more devotedly into world literature and gardening. There is no Prince Charming to release her from her secluded life on an estate in the South of France – b ut an invitation to Ind ia arrives fr om friends of her aunt, a Sik h clan with fairytale riches, their sights set on the climax of their grandly indolent existence, the oldest son’s marriage. In delightfully refreshing language, Anna Katharina Fröhlich tells a story of the pursuit of happiness. Anna Katharina Fröhlich, born in Bad Hersfeld in 1971, grew up in Frankfurt and Munich an d now lives on La ke Garda. Her debut n ovel Wilde Orangen was published in 2004.
Looking back without anger: Rada Biller marvels at her 20th century Rada Biller’s stories resound with a deep sense of humanism, revealing a true European cosmopolitan. She r ecalls how even small childr en fell victim to anti-Semitism, how the Nazis’ obsessions extended even to beloved pets. Or how easy it was to beat the faceless bur eaucracy at its own game and slip through the Iron Curtain, how Jewish life has re-conquered a place for itself in post-war Germany. Escape, the family and identity ar e the constellation ar ound which these seventeen humorous, melancholy and personal stories revolve. Yet Rada Biller is never concerned with making accusations, with venting anger – what interests her is finding herself, and the art of forgiveness. Rada Biller was born in Baku in 1930. Her family moved to Moscow in 1937, spending the war years in Bashkiria and Stalingrad. After World War II, she studied geography in Moscow and moved to Prague during the 1950s. Following the brutal ending of the Prague Spring, she and her family emigrated to Hamburg in 1970, where she wrote prose sketches and short stories in her native Russian. Her first novel Melonenschale was published in 2003.
RADA BILLER Meine sieben Leben und ich
Rada Biller My Seven Names and I Short Stories Published in March 2011
A moving story of persecution, power and love Having survived Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1945, Klaus Weinert cannot imagine being locked up there again only a year later. His world seems to fall apart for good, his love for the half-Jewess Rebecca seems destined to remain unfulfilled. Although many Communists had suf fered fr om their imprisonment in Sachsenhausen, they arrest the young Social Democrat Weinert, branding him a ‘deviationist’ for refusing to support the forced unification of the KPD and SPD. Rebecca returns to her former home in Pol and to search for surviving relatives, only to be gr eeted by brutal anti-Semitism that for ces her to flee back to Germany. Deeply traumatised, the two of them see no futur e ahead of them – and yet their love gets a new chance in this dramatic stor y of betrayal and violence. Werner Sonne, born in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1947, has worked in German television for more than forty years. He has been the head of the Berlin studio for the ARD morning magazine show since 2004. His most recent book was Wenn ich dich vergesse, Jerusalem (2008).
Werner Sonne To the Future Turned, We Stand Novel Approx. 300 pages Published in September 2010
FICTION
9
BACKLIST FICTION
10
Fiction Backlist
Katrin Askan Out of the Woods Novel 198 pages Sold to: Denmark, Italy
Rada Biller Lina and the Others Novel Originally written in Russian 320 pages
Marcus Braun Wedding Preparations Novel 234 pages Sold to: Greece, Czech Republic
Jan Peter Bremer Palaces Three Short Novels 235 pages
Jan Peter Bremer Still Life Short Novel 88 pages
Bernadette Calonego Under Dark Waters Novel 284 pages Sold to: Netherlands
Daniela Dröscher The Lights of George Psalmanazar Novel 364 pages
Hans Graf von der Goltz Krasnitz’ Decision Novel 178 pages
Patricia Görg Lucky Splits Novel 108 pages
Patricia Görg Meier with a Y A year book 172 pages
Matthias Göritz The Short Dream of Jacob Voss Novel 192 pages
Nina Jäckle Next Door Novel 126 pages
Nina Jäckle Noll Novel 194 pages Sold to: France
Elfriede Jelinek Death and the Maiden I-V Princess’s dramas 240 pages. Sold to: France, Sweden, Netherlands, Slovenia, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia, China, Japan, Greece, Spain
Viktor Jerofejew The Good Stalin 364 pages. Sold to: Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia
BACKLIST FICTION
11
Thomas Klupp Paradiso Novel 160 pages Sold to: Lithuania, Bulgaria Film Rights sold Sample Translation available www.paradiso.berlinverlage.de
Wolfgang Kohlhaase New Year’s Eve with Balzac Stories 218 pages
Björn Kuhligk / Jan Wagner The Forest at Home Travels through the Harz region 176 pages
Moritz Wulf Lange Little Aster. Dallinger's First Case Detective Story 264 pages
Moritz Wulf Lange Cold Abyss. Dallinger’s Second Case Detective Story 260 pages
Gila Lustiger Mr Grinberg & Co. A story about happiness Illustrated by Vitali Konstantinov 186 pages Sold to: Korea
Grit Poppe Extraordinary Circumstances Novel 302 pages Sold to: Turkey
Mirjam Pressler Poison of Roses Novel 250 pages Sold to: France, Italy, Netherlands, Romania
Leif Randt House of Lights Novel 236 pages
Nikola Richter Ending it on an Island Short Stories 144 pages
Fridolin Schley Wild, Beautiful Animal Short Stories 140 pages
Elke Schmitter Mrs. Sartoris Novel 160 pages Sold to: 17 countries
Elke Schmitter Vera’s Daughter Novel 176 pages
Keto von Waberer, Sister Novel 166 pages Sold to: France, Lithuania, Netherlands
Keto von Waberer Embraces Short Stories 194 pages
12 POEMS
Consistently Contemporary and Ruthlessly Poetic!
Jan Wagner Australia 96 pages August 2010
Jan Wagner Eighteen Pies 96 pages August 2007
Jan Wagner Guericke's Sparrow 83 pages February 2004
Jan Wagner Test Drilling in the Sky 80 pages February 2001
Bjรถrn Kuhligk On the Surface of the Earth 86 pages March 2009
Bjรถrn Kuhligk Big Picture 76 pages February 2005
Bjรถrn Kuhligk In the End the Tourists Come 112 pages February 2002
Gerhard Falkner Hรถlderlin Repair 96 pages November 2008
Elke Schmitter No Spaniel 64 pages August 2005
Tom Schulz Canon of Disappearing 112 pages September 2009
Ron Winkler Fragmented Waters 96 pages February 2007
Ron Winkler Frenetical Silence 96 pages February 2010
The QUELLE-Story – A key chapter of 20th century economic history in Germany For decades, it was an institution in millions of German households: the Quelle catalogue. Not only was it a medium that created a particularly close connection between the company and its customers; more importantly, the range of products it presented also had a decisive influence on public taste and everyday culture in the land of the economic miracle. Gregor Schöllgen pr esents the first compr ehensive biography of the Quelle founder Gustav Schickedanz. On the basis of previously unavailable sources, he describes the early years of the mail-order company from the 1920s and the construction of the industrial empir e with which Gustav Schickedanz created a second foothold for the company in the 1930s. After World War II, Schickedanz was accused of having pr ofited from ‘Aryanisation’. Although these accusations eventually pr oved unfounded, Schöllgen skilfully exposes the grey areas in which business inevitably operates within a dictatorship. In the post-war period, W est Germany’s economic miracle and the emerging consumer society meant a time of unprecedented growth for Quelle, proving a success that could have no future without Gustav Schickedanz’ entrepreneurial genius. Schöllgen’s richly illustrated biography is partly based on a systematic analysis of the Schickedanz family papers after the founder’s death, to which the author was the first historian to have unrestricted access.
Gregor Schöllgen, born 1952, is a professor of modern history at the University of Erlangen, where he heads the Centre of Applied History (ZAG). He has been a guest professor in New York, Oxford and London and is the co-editor of the files of the German foreign office and Willy Brandt’s papers. Professor Schöllgen has written numerous books on 19th and 20th century history, including the bestseller Willy Brandt (2001). His most recent publications include Der Eiskönig. Theo Schöller (2008).
Gregor Schöllgen Gustav Schickedanz Biography of a Revolutionary 464 pages Published in August 2010
NON-FICTION
13
NON-FICTION
14
Bella, Bella Berlusconia!
BIRGIT SCHÖNAU Circus Italia
Birgit Schönau Circus Italia An inside report on the entertainment democracy Approx. 250 pages Published in February 2011
From a place of desire to a countr y of corruption – Italy has ch anged. The Arcadian utopia is over, now we turn up our noses. B ut can we still under stand the country? And is Italy really now only Berlusconia? In this journey across Italy, prominent figur es fr om politics and television voice their opinions, alongside the everyday citizens of a post-democratic state. Be it in the separatist North or the Mafia-run South, Italy seems to be out of control. Half circus, half jungle camp, with survival of the fittest as the only rule. Birgit Schönau meets mayors who think they’ re sheriffs, ministers who burn laws in public, and footballers who play against their own government. She visits the new lords and the new slaves on the margin of Europe. She describes a country between megalomania and catastrophe, whose inhabitants look like the audience at a circus – but know all too well what they are doing. And the question that closes the book is: will we soon be living like this too? Birgit Schönau, born in Westphalia in 1966, studied history and journalism before moving to Rome in 1992. She has followed every step of Silvio Berlusconi’s political car eer, r eporting for the Sü ddeutsche Zeitung and DIE ZEIT.
‘Calm, subtle, touching – these are the words that best describe Christine Brinck’s wonderful book.’ LOUIS BEGLEY Christine Brinck describes a childhood in the GDR, a childhood in which she had t o f ace t he s nares o f de nunciation a t a n e arly a ge. S he g rants u s a n unusual and very personal insight into the first ten years of the East German regime, into a childhood before the Berlin Wall. With a sha rp eye free from self-pity, Brinck e xplains how people c ope with threatening situations without losing their sense of humour and energy, and how people come to terms with life between rebellion and withdrawal. The second part of the book presents very different voices, all linked by their desire for freedom, frustration over the dic tatorship and finally escape from the GDR. A tennis ace who longs to face the int ernational competition, a philosophy student for whom the truth is more important than the party, and a Swiss girl who gets caught up in the bureaucratic wheels of a dictatorship. In a calm tone but with a sharp eye, this b ook is a document of almost forgotten times – enlightenment in the best sense of the word. Christine Brinck A Childhood in Pre-Wall Times 192 pages Published in October 2010
Christine Brinck grew up in East Germany. Her family escaped to the West, where she studied English literatur e, linguistics and comparative higher education research. She is now a fr eelance journalist writing for DIE ZEIT , the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The Poison of Globalization What implications does globalization have for the way Old Europe sees itself? It’s absolute poison! Instead of colonising the entire globe with our own values as Europe once hoped, twenty years after the fall of the Iron Curtain we’re now facing a multi-polar world with no unifying structur e. We are forced to deal with other cultur es and c ontinents on eye le vel, even having to openly acknowledge their militar y and economic superiority. That wasn’t the plan! We’re not used to this! Where will it all end? After all, it’s us who are the good guys! T he tr ue b elievers! T he b eautiful p eople! P articularly t he d ogged perseverance with which the EU clings to its vision of Europe as a continent leading global politics can only be described as pathological – to be precise, as the r eaction of an of fended narcissist. In his essay , the philosopher and writer Wolfram Eilenberger sets out a clear and sharp-tongued critique of the fatal defence strategies at the heart of our culture. Wolfram Eilenberger, a doctor of philosophy , is a corr espondent to Cicer o magazine, a columnist for the Berlin Tagesspiegel and a freelance writer. Berlin Verlag has published various books, including Philosophie für alle, die noch etwas vorhaben (2005) and Kleine Menschen, große Fragen (2009). W olfram Eilenberger lives in Berlin und T oronto, where he teaches philosophy at the University of Toronto.
WOLFRAM EILENBERGER Das Gift der Globalisierung
Wolfram Eilenberger The Poison of Globalization Approx. 160 pages Published in March 2011
‘One of the best art books in a long time.’ TAGESSPIEGEL A touching book r emembering Mart in Kippenberger, the bad boy of the German art world who died young and infamous for his artistic iconoclasm and provocative life, told through the eyes of his sister. As an artist and a person, Martin Kippenberger always sought out extremes. In her biographical portrait, Susanne Kippenberger portrays her brother as those close to him knew him. She looks beyond the performances of an artist who always wanted to control his fame and the impression he made on the world. She describes the iconoclast and the family man, the self-made man and the pr ovocateur, who fear ed nothing a s much a s boredom and hated nothing as much as routine - but still needed rituals. Who was addicted to drugs, alcohol, recognition and love, and worked himself to death for his art. Whose longing for new places and projects was as great as that for a home, for families and ersatz families. An enfant terrible for whom childhood never ended. Susanne Kippenberger, born in Dortmund in 1957, is an editor for the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel.
Susanne Kippenberger Kippenberger. The Artist and his Families 576 pages 80 b/w Illustrations February 2007 Sold to: USA
NON FICTION
15
NON-FICTION
16
Why men eat meat and women like salad A culinary gender study – delicious from the first page to the last. Studies have found that men and women taste, cook and or der food differently. Eva Gritzmann and Den is Scheck set out on an inf ormative and enjoyable tour of culinar y culture, talking to lady vintners about women’s wine, asking female butchers what they put in their sausages, and finding out from the bestselling writer Jan Weiler what a ‘stupid salad’ is. Michelin-starred chefs, brain scientists and flavour researchers talk about how men and women eat and drink dif ferently. Undertaking daring experiments and looking at literature and medicine, the authors investigate key questions such as: Is meat vegetables for men? Why did the snake tempt Eve with fresh fruit? Why is mum’s h ome-cooking a lways m en’s f avourite? They s erve u p i nformed, delicious and original answers, full of al dente wit for all lovers of the culinary and the cultural. Eva Gritzmann / Denis Scheck HER & HIM – How Men and Women Eat and Drink Differently Approx. 200 pages Published February 2011
Dr. Eva Gritzmann trained as a bank clerk before studying medicine. She is now a doctor and lives in Stuttgart. Denis Scheck is one of Germany’s best-known literar y critics and a selfacclaimed gourmet. He lives in Cologne.
The book of the season – on location with the fashion bloggers Les Mads Nobody has been more successful than Julia Knolle and Jessica Weiss with their f ashion b log L es M ads, s hort f or ‘ Les Ma demoiselles’. L es M ads a re constantly on the r oad, in Milan, Paris, London and Stockholm, New Y ork and of course Berlin. They attend fashion shows, browse through lookbooks, keep an eye on street trends and visit the most gorgeous vintage stores. In this book, Julia and Jessica write about their experiences before and behind the scenes of the fashion wo rld. And of course they t ell us what they themselves wear and don’t wear. An educational and entertaining look at fashion and glamour today – with plenty of addresses and tips.
Julia Knolle/Jessica Weiss Fashion Story. On location with Les Mads With illustrations by Silke Werzinger Approx. 176 pages Published in January 2011
Julia Knolle, born in Düsseldorf in 1982, studied business administration in Cologne. To distract herself from her studies, she spent her nights on fashion sites and forums on the internet, until she met Jessica Weiss through friends and the two of them started their own blog. A white T-shirt has been a basic feature in her wardrobe for years, a beloved favourite alongside other classics. Jessica Weiss, born in Essen in 1986, studied marketing communication in Cologne. Platform shoes, black asymmetry or vintage finds – Jessie’s favourites always play a role in her posts about outfits that she writes on an almost daily basis for Les Mads.
Yoga is relaxation? Only for hippies? Think again High blood pr essure, depression, impotence – moder n yoga is said to help with everything. But modesty and closeness to God? Doesn’t it make the nervous more sensitive, the cr estfallen more self-pitying, the gentle feebleminded and the aggr essive unbearable? Materialists ar e the gr eatest body fetishists, even in yoga. Has the W est ruined yoga? Can yoga even save the exhausted self, as the sociologists call it, at all? Or does it lead to a silent revolution after all? Kristin Rübesamen tells of her jour ney from New York to Berlin’s down-atheel district of Wedding and why she took up yoga at the studio around the corner. We get to know her teachers and h er own teaching experience. She takes us all around the world, only to end up back at the secret of the downward-looking dog – concisely, in amazement and with great respect. Kristin Rübesamen, born in Munich, studied German and Russian literature and went on to work in te levision. Following a decade in New Y ork and London, she now lives in Berlin with her husband and two daughters. She writes for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Frankfurter A llgemeine Sonntagszeitung and has published two novels. Her most recent publication, with Angelika Taschen, is Great Yoga Retreats. She teaches yoga in Berlin and around the world.
Kristin Rübesamen Everyone Is Illuminated Confessions of a yoga teacher 256 pages Published in September 2010
All about the joyous adventure of hiking Ever since Manuel Andrack started e xplaining the phenomenon of ‘new hiking’ in his successful books, Germany’s forests and mountains have been overrun by hip young things. But what is actually the perfect hike? The path that stimulates all our senses and keeps us fit and healthy? A delightful view of the countryside, or a great pub at the end of the road? Hiking is not a box of chocolates – promenadologists have researched it as thoroughly as others investigate the genome. Doctors highly recommend it, as long as you go easy on it. But not ever yone sticks to the appr oved dose – some extr eme hikers walk up to 75 kilometr es in 24 hours. W ith this one exception, however , Manuel Andrack has stuck to well-trodden paths, always in pursuit of the joy of the perfect hike. In this book he tells us how to find that happiness. Manuel Andrack was born in Cologne in 1965. He was chief editor for the hugely successful German comedy show Harald Schmidt Show, winning the German Television Award in 2001 and 2003. He has been publishing books on the subjects of hiking, punk rock and genealogy since 2004. He writes for various newspapers and magazines, including DIE ZEIT and Stern, and works as a radio writer and presenter.
Manuel Andrack The New Hiking On the road in pursuit of happiness 250 pages Published in January 2011
NON-FICTION
17
NON-FICTION
18
An up-to-date guidance for modern parents - intelligent, clever and with a sense of humour Parenting is a moral and educational minefield. Never have parents been as unsure as now – in our times of bilingual pre-schools and peer pressure from super-parents and model childr en. So the editors Matthias Kalle and T anja Stelzer set out to pose 150 questi ons to their fellow writers w ith parenting experience: about daddy smoking at the playground, babies at parties, Nintendos in the nursery, about cheating, swearing and obedience in family life. The answers are as varied as the writers themselves – some witty, some serious, but all of them intelligent and touchingly honest. This book is no dogmatic behaviour bible; it’s a colourful, ente rtaining kaleidoscope of modern parenting experiences and a plea to give up striving for perfection.
Matthias Kalle/Tanja Stelzer (eds.) Should Daddy Smoke on the See-Saw? An unprofessional parenting book Featuring Harald Martenstein, Jana Hensel, Susanne Gaschke, Ulrich Greiner and others Approx. 200 pages Published in October 2010
Matthias Kalle, born 1975, writes for ZEITma gazin. He is marrie d with a daughter. Tanja Stelzer, born 1970, has written for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, SZ-Magazin and the T agesspiegel and is now chief text editor for ZEIT magazin. She lives in Hamburg with her husband, son and daughter.
This book is worth every penny
JENS SCHÄFER Gutes kann auch teuer sein
Jens Schäfer Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is A handbook for a bargain-free life Approx. 160 pages Published in April 2011
We’ve all been ther e – bought things bec ause they’re so seductively low in price, but in the end are such poor quality that you can hardly use them. Got annoyed because they instantly fall apart, break or tear. Because they’re itchy, smelly, tight or don’t taste good. Enough is enough: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is reveals the secr ets of why cheap batteries ar e so cheap, what makes a good bakery, and pr ovides invaluable orienta tion in the consumer jungle: How can I find a pencil that won’t break? A pen that won’t smudge? Or a tin-opener that won’t go on strike after the fifth ser ving of dog food? With wit and insight, the r eformed bargain-hunter Jens Schäfer shar es an enjoyable mixtur e of informed shopping advice, astounding pr oduct knowledge and empathetic reports on experiences of everyday consumer insanity. Jens Schäfer bought his first tin-opener at the age of twenty – his second one came three days and ten cans later. Born in Löffingen in 1968, he grew up in the Black Forest and the Allgäu. He studied humanities in Freiburg, Vienna and Berlin. He writes television screenplays and has published two novels and an instruction manual for the Black Forest. He’s never forgotten that first tin-opener, and is still using the second one.
19
Wolfram Eilenberger Little People, Big Questions 160 pages
Wolfram Eilenberger Philosophy for People Who want to Make it 222 pages Sold to: Korea
Susanne Kippenberger At the Table The Culinary Bohème or The Discovery of Lust for Life 256 pages. Hardcover With b/w illustrations
Irina Liebmann Berlin’s Quiet Heart. Around Hackescher Markt 112 pages With 50 colour photos www.irina-liebmann.de
Ulrich Renz Beauty 320 pages Sold to: Spain, Korea
Manuela Runge / Bernd Lukasch Lives of Invention The Brothers Lilienthal 304 pages
BACKLIST NON-FICTION
Non-Fiction Backlist
Barbara Hahn Hannah Arendt Passions, People and Books 176 pages
Irina Liebmann Would it be nice? It would be nice! 416 pages Sold to: France Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2008
Andreas Weber Feeling Life. Nature and the Revolution of the Life Sciences 172 pages Sold to: Korea, Slovenia, Croatia
Viktor Jerofejew The Russian Apocalypse 304 pages Sold to: Netherlands
Michael Klonovsky The Pain of Beauty On Giacomo Puccini 288 pages 10 b/w illustrations
Michael Maar Solus Rex The Bad and Beautiful World of Vladimir Nabokov 208 pages Sold to: Bulgaria, England, USA
Andreas Weber Organic Capital 240 pages Sold to: Korea, Netherlands
Eva Züchner The Vanished Journalist A Media Career in The Third Reich 288 pages
Sabine Oswald Foreign Rights Director s.oswald@berlinverlag.de Tel 0049-30-44 38 45 15 Fax 0049-30-44 38 45 95
Anja Mallmann Foreign Rights a.mallmann@berlinverlag.de Tel 0049-30-44 38 45 17 Fax 0049-30-44 38 45 95
Translated by Katy Derbyshire
BV Berlin Verlag GmbH Greifswalder Str. 207 D – 10405 Berlin Germany www.berlinverlage.de