Foreign Rights Guide Spring 2020 Fiction Contacts & Agents Contents

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cover design: ZERO Werbeagentur GmbH using a picture from plainpicture.com/Anja Weber-Decker FOREIGN RIGHTS GUIDE SPRING 2020 FICTION CONTACTS & AGENTS CONTENTS

ANDREA SEIBERT English language CONSTANZE CHORY Scandinavia RIGHTS DIRECTOR Dutch language DEPUTY RIGHTS DIRECTOR Czech Republic T: ++49 89 38167-124 T: ++49 89 38167-125 Slovak Republic F: ++49 89 38167-324 F: ++49 89 38167-325 Poland [email protected] [email protected]

NICOLA BIEG Asia SONJA SCHMIDT France, Italy, Spain, HIGHLIGHTS 4 RIGHTS MANAGER Russia & Ukraine, Baltic States RIGHTS MANAGER Portugal, South America, T: ++49 89 38167-127 Hungary, Greece, Turkey T: ++49 89 38167-128 Romania, F: ++49 89 38167-327 Arab World, Israel, Africa F: ++49 89 38167-328 Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, FRONTLIST SPRING 2020 CRIME FICTION 10 [email protected] [email protected] Serbia, Slovenia

FICTION 15

WOMEN’S FICTION 16

DOCU-FICTION 18

CHINA (MAINLAND) HUNGARY ROMANIA Bejing Star Media Co. , Ltd. DS Budapest Kft Simona Kessler International Copyright Agency Ms. Wang Xing Ms. Margit Gruber Ms. Simona Kessler INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 19 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

CZECH & SLOVAK REPUBLIC ISRAEL RUSSIA & UKRAINE Dr. Ivana Beil Literary Agent The Deborah Harris Agency Maria Schliesser Literary Agent EISELE VERLAG 20 Ms. Ivana Beil Ms. Efrat Lev Ms. Maria Schliesser [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

DUTCH LANGUAGE ITALY SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES PREVIEW AUTUMN 2020 24 Marianne Schönbach Literary Agency Berla & Griffini Rights Agency schøne agentur Ms. Marianne Schönbach Ms. Barbara Griffini Ms. Anna Richter [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

FRANCE JAPAN (NON-EXCLUSIVE) SPANISH & PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE Editio Dialog Literary Agency Meike Marx Literary Agent Ute Körner Literary Agent Dr. Michael Wenzel Ms. Meike Marx Ms. Sandra Rodericks [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

GREECE KOREA TAIWAN (NON-EXCLUSIVE) Iris Literary Agency Momo Agency Bardon Chinese Media Agency Ms. Catherine Fragou Ms. Geenie Han Ms. Yu-Shiuan Chen [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

POLAND TURKEY AKF Agency Kalem Agency Ms. Anna Kolendarska-Fidyk Ms. Nazlıcan Kabataş [email protected] [email protected]

Translation by Rachel Reynolds Layout by Miriam Zimmer, dtv

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Praise for Dear Child ENGLISH SAMPLE “THE surprise bestseller.” EXPRESS, TRANSLATION Köln, April 7, 2019 AVAILABLE

“She is a master of insinuation.” Georg Pepl, Hessische Allgemeine, April 2019

“Readers will be captivated by the Flagship Title plot, which will keep them completely enthralled from the first page to the last.” Manuela Haselberger, Freie Presse, March 2019 Her past makes her the perfect victim. And the perfect murderer... Romy Hausmann Marta, Asleep A murder has occurred, and it must be undone. This leaves 352 pages April 2020 © Astrid Eckert © Astrid only one possibility. The murder has to happen again, and the real culprit has to provide the police with a different course of events - as well as a plausible culprit. And he finds ROMY HAUSMANN was born in the former Romy Hausmann GDR in 1981, and became the chief editor of one in the mentally unstable young woman who works as a TV station at age 24. There she has met a an assistant at a law firm. Her past alone makes her the variety of protagonists, whose stories she told: Marta, Asleep perfect victim - or better said, the perfect murderer. Stories of domestic abuse, Somalian refugees of war and neglected children. Since the birth The young woman already has a guilty past. She was still of her son she is working as a freelancer for Rights sold – pre-publication: practically a child, when a crime took place that never several TV formats. Her thriller debut Dear Child has been sold to 17 languages so far. English language, Sweden, The Netherlands should have occurred. She did her penance, but as an adult, she seems to be working through her guilt via a kind of non-existence. Instead of actually living, she observes the • Following the phenomenal success of her debut novel Dear Child, the new psychothriller lives of others. However, she refuses to bear any more guilt from the Spiegel bestselling author Romy Hausmann than she already feels. So when she sees through the actual • Highly emotional, top-class psychological thriller murderer’s plot, she decides to turn the tables. • Rights sold for Dear Child in 17 languages A deeply disturbing book about guilt, retribution, and the question of whether a perpetrator can ever be truly free again...

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Christopher Kloeble – Backlist titles Christopher Kloeble The Immortal Family Salz The Museum of the World

ENGLISH Resplendent with glamour but overcast by many a shadow, the SAMPLE Rights sold: TRANSLATIONAVAILABLE story of the Salz family centres on Leipzig’s up-market Fürstenhof hotel. Salz Sr. buys it in 1914, but his actress Persian language daughter Lola refuses to set foot in it for many years—not during the Second World War, nor later when the hotel has become GDR state property and Lola is living in Munich with her frail daughter Aveline. It is not until 1989, after her son Kurt ENGLISH Oellermann © Jens has restored the Fürstenhof to family ownership, that Lola steps SAMPLE in to preside not only over the hotel but also the fortunes of a TRANSLATION AVAILABLE CHRISTOPHER KLOEBLE family worn down by the relentless winds of change. studied at the German 440 pages Literature Institute in Leipzig, Pub. Date: 2016 528 pages was writer-in-residence at February 2020 Cambridge University (UK), at the Goethe Institute in Bangalore (India) and at the Home Made in India An extraordinary adventure and an unforgettable hero Deutsches Haus in New York (USA). He won several prizes ENGLISH Indians, Germans, and an author seeking to answer the Bartholomew is an orphan from Bombay, he’s twelve years old and speaks almost as SAMPLE question: What is home? Since his marriage to Indian native many languages. This is why, in the year 1854, he is hired as a translator by the brothers for his work and lives in Berlin TRANSLATIONAVAILABLE Saskya, Christopher Kloeble is a notarized “Person of Schlagintweit from Germany, who, with the support of Alexander von Humboldt and the and Delhi. Indian Heritage.” In this insightful, nuanced, amusing book, he East India Company, embark on the greatest expedition of their time, taking them across strives to convey what it feels like to be suspended between two India and the Himalayas. But Bartholomew is also pursuing his own agenda: He wants to cultures. Of course, cliches and preconceptions abound here as found the first museum of his astonishing, contradictory native land. For this he is willing well as there - Indians enjoy chiding Germans for their to risk everything. Even his life. impatience and dogmatism, while Germans frequently have A fantastic adventure that will change the way we see the history of colonialism. very exotic stereotypes about life in India.

Orphaned teenager Bartholomew could be Kim’s older brother. (…) But The Museum of the 288 pages World, unlike Kipling’s classic, also shows the unsettling nature of those personal encounters Pub. Date: 2017 – colonial but very human nevertheless – which shaped world history. Francesca Melandri, author of the bestseller The Rightful Blood More Often than Not All Very Fast For years, Albert has been visiting Fred during the holidays and Rights sold: English • Laugh-out-loud funny and at times almost unbearably tender, The Museum of the at weekends, but they’ve never really grown close. Albert only language, Israel, Italy, World examines in depth the ambivalent nature of all colonial human relationships. COMPLETE ever called Fred Fred, never Father. Fred is a child trapped in ENGLISH the body of an old man, he spends his time reading TEXT Turkey (Francesca Melandri) AVAILABLE encyclopaedias, waves at green cars and guards his prize possession jealously. Albert is 22, grew up in a children’s home and never knew his mother. Somehow he senses that Fred is the only one who can help him find out more about his background. But Fred has only five months left to live...

380 pages Pub. Date: 2012

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Three Women at the Lake Dora Heldt Dora Heldt They had been close friends since childhood: Marie, Rights sold: Alexandra, Friederike, and Jule. Regardless of where their lives took them, they gathered every Friday before Pentecost, Italy Mathilda, or Drei at Marie’s enchanting house by the lake. Marie, the sensitive Frauen ROMAN photographer, had held the four of them together, but that was Someone Always Dies

am See a long time ago. ENGLISH The message of Marie’s early death comes as a shock to all of SAMPLE Schepers © Franz TRANSLATION them. Since their quarrel ten years ago, they hardly have had AVAILABLE any contact with each other. Marie presents a last surprise to DORA HELDT was born in 1961 her friends, provided that they have to meet again. on Sylt, and has written herself _ BEST Over 300,000 copies sold to the top of the bestseller list 576 pages SELLING and into the hearts of millions 576 pages AUTHOR March 2020 of readers. She knows the book Pub. date 2018 market better than almost any other author in Germany. As a trained bookseller, she

21437 We Might Still Be Hot The deceptive demeanor of Dettebüll Dora Heldt worked for over thirty years as a What could be worse than the prospect celebrating your 50th Rights sold: representative for a large trade Bei Hitze ist es wenigstens birthday in a humdrum suburban restaurant in the company nicht kalt Czech Republic, “What a splendid, sunny October day, Mathilda thought contentedly publisher. In her consistently of your entire family? Especially if you suffer from cataclysmic as her dog George peed on the the tree in Selma’s front yard.” sold-out readings, she delights mood swings and occasionally find yourself glowing like Denmark, Norway readers of all ages. burning embers even in the snow. Doris (49.9) seeks refuge Mathilda loves Dettebüll, her village in North Frisia, its inhabitants, and her in doing a runner: she’d far rather defy the dreaded date and family. Well, everyone except for Ilse, her mother, that spawn of malevolence. escape with her one-time school friends Katja (49) and Anke One day, turmoil spreads throughout the village as strangers express interest in (48) to enjoy a pampering spa-weekend with all the trimmings the meadows of Dettebüll. However, change of any kind is torture for Mathilda. on the Baltic coast. Way back when they were still at school, And so she starts battling for peace in her village. Unfortunately, her efforts

Bei Hitze ist es wenigstens nicht kalt Dora Heldt Bei Hitze ist es wenigstens the three of them had high expectations for the future. But who prove deadly for several villagers. She really couldn’t help that, though. likes to admit they’ve missed the boat? Hot stone massages, _ _ Roman Turkish steam baths and pedicures help to gloss over things, until the bubble bursts over strawberries and champagne... 336 pages Pub. date 2011 Over 700,000 copies sold • A tender, odd comedy about an idyllic country village into which the disdainful, coarse outside world finds its way • Bestselling author with over 5 million copies sold 21143 Chaperoned (Vacation with Dad) Actually it was meant to be a relaxing working holiday: Rights sold: Christine (45) and Dorothea (40) were going to spend a few Dora Heldt Urlaub days on a Northsea island, helping a friend renovate her pub. English World Rights, English Edition Estonian Edition Norwegian Edition of Roman mit Papa But then Christine is compelled by her mother to take her Estonia, Norway, father along. And they’ve barely set foot on the island when of Chaperoned of Chaperoned We Might Still be Hot Heinz (73) assumes command of the building site. Of course, Russia

Urlaub mit Papa Dora Heldt Urlaub things can only go from bad to worse…

COMPLETE Over 750,000 copies sold ENGLISH TEXT __ AVAILABLE 320 pages Pub. date 2009

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Patrick Illinger Linus Geschke QUANTUM – Tannenstein (vol. I)

Lethal Matter 384 pages January 2019 ENGLISH SAMPLE TRANSLATION

AVAILABLE Bogenberger © Heike © Süddeutsche Zeitung © Süddeutsche

PATRICK ILLINGER worked LINUS GESCHKE, born in for years as an antimatter When the Hiker comes, people die: eleven in the remote town of Tannenstein near 1970 in Cologne, works as a the Czech border, then a gas station attendant in the Harz region, and a real estate freelance journalist for Spiegel 320 pages researcher at CERN, the agent in the Allgäu area. The killer materializes out of nowhere, murders without Online, Manager magazine, March 2020 European Organization for Nuclear Research, before he warning, and vanishes without a trace. The only person who stands in the Hiker’s and the Frankfurter Allgemeine decided to devote himself way is Alexander Born, an ex-cop turned criminal. Years ago, the Hiker killed his Sonntagszeitung. He has won fully to his writing career. In girlfriend, and now Born wants revenge. He soon finds himself embroiled in a hunt several journalism prizes for A new superweapon. A determined scientist. And a race against time. 1997, he became a senior that will end where everything started: in Tannenstein. his travel reportages. editor at the Süddeutsche Zeitung, where he established Rights sold: Poland Physicist Nicola Caneddu is enjoying a post-work beer – but only a few the online editorial moments later, he finds himself in the hands of brutal kidnappers who department. Since 2002, he want to force him to give up information about a secret tunnel at CERN. has been responsible for the Nicola escapes and starts to investigate this matter, on his own at first science department. – and then on behalf of the US President. What he uncovers is a plot to build a superweapon of tremendous dimensions. As an unwilling agent, Linus Geschke Nicola lands in a scenario that he had only ever encountered in action films. However, his immense knowledge in the field of elementary particle Finsterthal (vol. II) research makes him a valued ally in a struggle that could change the entire world as we know it.

416 pages February 2020

• Action fireworks extraordinaire • For readers of Mark Elsberg and Tom Clancy • The author knows what he is writing about, having spent years as a CERN researcher Young women are being abducted and then murdered despite the payment of ransoms. Is this an act of revenge against their fathers, who have made their fortunes through illegal business dealings? One year after the Tannenstein murderers, former police officer-turned-criminal Alexander Born appears on the scene. Along with his former colleague Carla Diaz, he wants to hunt down the man who calls himself “The Darkness”. However, in this game of lies and betrayal, nothing is as it seems, and Born is forced to eventually admit that it would have been better if he hadn’t opened the gates to hell.

• Spiegel bestseller trilogy – volume III in preparation • For readers of Ian Rankin and Tess Gerritsen

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JUDITH BERGMANN is the Benjamin Cors Normandy crime series pseudonym of an internationally bestselling author. She originally wanted to be a gardener, Judith Bergmann goldsmith, or timber builder. However, her great interest in Deadly Gale (vol. V) Death is the Only people, their feelings and emotions, won out, and since Justice then, she has dedicated herself to writing. 400 pages

March 2020 Kirchgessner © Markus

BENJAMIN CORS is a journalist and television 320 pages presenter who spent many February 2020 years covering world news for evening news programmes and in-depth political analysis. On the remote, wind-tossed Normandy island of Chausey, a couple discovers a How far can you go in the name of Justice? Today he works as a regional message in a bottle on the beach. It contains a list of five names, including that political correspondent for a of the man who just found it. He dies on the return trip to the mainland. A short broadcasting station. He grew On his way to the altar on his wedding day, a prominent businessman is shot in time later, the second man on the list is found dead. This sets in motion up as a Franco-German front of all his wedding guests. This is a spectacular case for Superintendent Rolf charismatic bodyguard Nicolas Guerlain’s race against time. Schellenberg. His team includes psychologist and journalist Ina Reich, who is national and spent his supposed to be examining the psychological impact of crimes on victims, witnesses childhood summers in and investigators. However, not every member of the team is glad to have Ina on Normandy. board. What is the psychologist hiding behind her professional facade? To Normandy crime series: Over 110,000 copies sold everyone’s dismay, one of the team members falls under suspicion. And when Ina Reich disappears without a trace, the tense situation quickly escalates. IN THE SAME SERIES Jetsam (vol. I) Coastline (vol. II) • An internationally successful thriller author writing now under a pseudonym 432 pages 384 pages • This plot will pull the rug out from even the most seasoned crime Pub. date 2015 Pub. date 2016 fiction readers

Epreuve de traduction en français à disposition

Tidal Game (vol. III) Beacon (vol. IV)

448 pages 432 pages Pub. date 2017 Pub. date 2018

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Christian Linker Lars Simon Influence – Bugs in the The Second-Hand System Bookshop of Dreams © Ulrike Wolf & Alf Leue Wolf © Ulrike © Barbara Dünkelmann © Barbara

CHRISTIAN LINKER, born in LARS SIMON was born in '68 1975, studied theology in Bonn (which may explain a lot, but and worked in youth policy not everything); after his 304 pages before dedicating himself fully 336 pages studies, he spent many long February 2020 to writing. His novels, which May 2020 years working as marketing always grapple with manager of an IT company controversial themes, have before moving to Sweden, The world, enveloped in digital darkness... received numerous awards. “Some books are magical, and in your second-hand bookshop, I think where he resided as a tourist you sell more than books. You give away dreams.” artisan in a wooden house with his family for more than Today is actually supposed to be Amir’s big day. With the handover of secret In late summer 1983, Johan Andersson loses the love of his life, Lina Berglund, six years. Meanwhile he has material to the internet activist, Habakuk, he is about to catalyze the biggest in a boat accident. He burns all his bridges and starts a new life as an returned to live in the scandal in the history of the internet. However, shortly before their meeting, the antiquarian dealer and cafe owner. He is rather shy, which is why he prefers to Frankfurt area. internet collapses worldwide. The person behind this is unknown. converse with the characters of his favorite books, who seem alive to him. However, William of Baskerville, Pippi Longstocking and Sherlock Holmes do What does Whistleblower Manfred know? He supplied Amir with the material more than console and distract him. They force Johan to make a choice: Does he for the leak and had remarked that something of huge significance was about to want to start a new life, or is he going to do everything to find Lina again? happen.

In the midst of the erupting chaos, Amir searches for the mysterious Habakuk. The moment he finds him, a car races out of nowhere towards them, just barely missing them. Who had the driver been trying to hit? Amir or Habakuk? And is there a connection with the digital blackout? BY THE SAME AUTHOR:

• An explosive and timely thriller set in the near future Rights sold: • For readers of Kevin Brooks, Hank Green, and Talk Talk by T.C. Boyle Czech Republic, Poland

Buri Bolmen´s Rather The Utterly Fantastical Guest Olaf Tryggvason's Surprisingly Peculiar Pug (vol. I) from Trindemossen (vol. II) Perfidious Plan (vol. III) 432 pages 320 pages 384 pages Pub. Date: 2016 Pub. Date: 2017 Pub. Date: 2018

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Heike Stöhr The Devil's Trilogy Katrin Einhorn The Devil’s Snares (vol. I) A Postcard to Happiness

Pirna, 1541. The number of mysterious deaths are multiplying, almost as if the Devil himself has a hand in them. Nineteen-year- old Sophia has just returned to her hometown, with a serious 320 pages interest in medicine, which dates back to her mother and brother’s May 2020 © Christine Fenzl

plague-related deaths during her childhood. While looking around Grande © Melanie her father’s office, she discovers a peculiar book – and she hopes to find within its pages a cure for the Black Death. However, someone else knows about the existence of this book: the town clerk, Wolf HEIKE STÖHR born in Pirna Come in and burn out KATRIN EINHORN was born 512 pages Schumann. He is obsessed with the idea of procuring this volume in 1964, earned degrees in in 1979. After studying Pub. date: 2017 for himself, and is not adverse to murder as a means to his ends. German Literature and German and French she went History, and works as a In his mid-thirties, Jakob is a marketing expert and an incorrigible workaholic – a on to work as a teacher. She teacher in Berlin. She did classic candidate for burnout. A Slow Movement center in a sleepy coastal village in lives in Trier with her fam- the research for her thesis Spain seems to be just the ticket for him – at least, that is what his sister thinks. Jakob ily and uses the hours her on Saxon history in the Pirna grudgingly agrees to go, but intends to spend the whole time working. However, he children sleep to write her Municipal Archive, focusing makes these plans without reckoning with his pretty therapist Mona. charming and witty novels. The Devil’s Handwriting (vol. II) on the subject matter she has Mud and neuropathy treatments, discussion groups, cell phone prohibitions, and utilized in her novels. the constant sound of the waves are Jakob’s worst nightmare. But then an old song Pirna, 1544: Ever since the book with strange writing in it crossed he hears in a harbor bar suddenly whisks him back to a past he long thought he had her path, Sophia has been devoted to solving its mystery. Master forgotten, one in which his old penpal Flora had also belonged… Heinrich Fuchs stands solidly by her side, having married Sophia after the death of Niklas, the father of her son. The unscrupulous town clerk, Wolf Schumann, has been secretly watching both of them, and he has his own plans for the book’s magical powers. But then one day, the presumed dead Niklas suddenly appears in Pirna. Birgit Hasselbusch 576 pages The Lingering Traces of Pub. date 2019 Wanderlust The Devil’s Malice (vol. III) 352 pages May 2020

1545. In Nikolsburg, situated in a lonely and distant valley in the Glücklich © Gunter Alps, Sophia learns the local dialect. And then, the book finally reveals its knowledge – but it isn’t the anticipated information. BIRGIT HASSELBUSCH was When Sophie receives the tidings that her husband has fallen A woman caught between beginnings and endings extremely ill, she departs immediately to return to Pirna, the cod- born in 1969. She used to ed text stowed in her baggage. Alexandra and Markus’ daughter Lou has just graduated from high school and is read books backwards out preparing to spend a year abroad in Madrid. Alexandra also worked there in 1989 of sheer boredom, and since This is just what the conniving town clerk Wolf Schumann has as an au pair. In that place of longing, she experienced her first taste of freedom, but that time she’s also taught been waiting for. He still doesn’t know, though, that this long- herself to speak backwards - 512 pages also went through her first real emotional pain. anticipated, long-yearned-for book will drive him insane... in German, English, Spanish August 2020 Now, Lou is on the verge of her own great adventure, and Alexandra is struggling with letting go. and French. Nowadays she • Tense mystery & dramatic romance Birgit Hasselbusch has crafted a tale about a great, overpowering love, a new start works as a presenter at Radio into independence, and what is truly important in life. Hamburg (speaking forwards, • A historical story about a mysterious book that holds knowledge and power of course!).

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Das Seil The Rope Naked at the Hotel How Friendship Beat Out Love 180 pages

Stefan aus dem Siepen aus dem Stefan First published in 2012 Stefan ENGLISH aus dem Siepen SAMPLE © Susanne Schleyer © Susanne © Katharina Hintze © Katharina TRANSLATION Das Seil AVAILABLE

ROMAN _ JO SCHÜCK born in 1980, STEFAN AUS DEM SIEPEN, studied public relations, born in 1964, studied law and philosophy, and business in entered a diplomatic career In a remote village, enclosed by vast forests, a couple of farmers and their families lead a college. Since 2014, he has in 1992. After postings in 208 pages content and simple life, barely touched by the ongoings in the world. One day, a moderated the ZDF Bonn, Luxemburg, Shanghai March 2020 seemingly insignificant occurrence turns the small world of the villagers upside down: a television series aspekte, and and Moscow, he is currently piece of rope is found on one of the meadows close to the forest, leading into the woods, has worked as an author working for the Foreign Office and it seems that there is no end to it. and presenter for various in Berlin. socio-political documentaries. After a quick first foray into the woods, almost all the able-bodied men of the village Move over, love! Only friendship can save us. Schück has been honored decide to follow the rope until the very end. A kafka-esque trip ensues… with the Ernst Schneider Prize and the CNN Journalist Award. A quick glance at the media landscape makes it crystal clear that friendship is in. While the women and children wait for the travellers to return, the men are increasingly Rights sold: Naked at the Hotel is his first You can see this in the success of novels such as Elena Ferrante’s bestseller My drawn into the spell of the rope. Two of them are killed, the rest are being persecuted book. France, Italy Brilliant Friend, and series like Friends and New Girl. by wolves, they plunder a deserted village and are eventually willing to risk their entire existence for the sake of the rope. Jo Schück presents a radical theory: In this day and age, which is typified by social upheavals, globalization, the erosion of certainties, and the dissolution of

traditional family structures, there is only one constant connection: friendship. It STEFAN provides us with a form of stability that we cannot find anywhere else – neither in AUS DEM SIEPEN The Giant DER RIESE romantic relationships nor in familial frameworks. ROMAN The author combines fictional episodes about friendship with solidly researched social analyses. He also incorporates common sayings about the nature of 200 pages French Edition: friendship, contemporary phenomena – such as Instagram dates, friends with First published in 2014 benefits, and single households – and the socio-political value that friendship enjoys

these days. DER RIESE DEM SIEPEN AUS STEFAN

• The celebration of friendship belongs to today’s age just as much as Tilman was supposed to be a roofer – just like his father and grandfather – but it wasn’t long before his size prevented him from following in their footsteps. At two metres yoga, cupcakes, and vegan cuisine. thirty-nine, he is the tallest man in Germany. As Tilman continues to gain in height, he loses his girlfriend and his job but becomes a media sensation, his fame increasing in proportion to his size. However, he grows in other ways too, learning to play the piano and becoming a discerning reader. Before long his frame outstrips its surroundings. He is Rights sold: now a giant by profession – and learns how to make the best of it. But ultimately his life is threatened by his size – if he keeps on growing, his heart will eventually fail him. France

This is the touching story of a man who grows to be an outsider and comes to see it as an advantage. A poignant novel full of surprising twists, imbued with gentle irony.

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FRANK BERZBACH, born in 1971, teaches literature 192 pages pedagogy and philosophy February 2020 at the Technical College of Cologne. After training to be a technical draftsman, he completed degrees in How did the two of you actually meet? education, philosophy and 32 Stories as an answer to this question literature. He has a weakness for books, records, bicycles, The nameless first-person narrator and Linh are in love. When Linh asks her partner tea, monasteries, and analog to write down the beginning of their story, he refuses to let facts spoil a good tale, so typing devices. He lives in he starts to invent variations. Out of a single beginning, multiple ones emerge. The Cologne and Hamburg. narrator feels free to change the settings, situations and events. The stories jump into various places and times, alternate between humor and contemplation, realism and magic, philosophy and romanticism. However, each iteration contains an element of the truth. The couple meets each other 32 times. There are 32 different starts, however the conclusion is (almost) always the same. Taken together as a whole, the variations create an image of a passionate relationship.

• Author of the bestseller The Art of Leading a Creative Life • Former books by the author have been translated into French, Korean, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish

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MARIE BRUNNTALER was Martina Bergmann Marie Brunntaler born in the southern Black Forest and grew up on a farm. She graduated with a My Life with Martha Wolf degree in biology, and during the 1973 oil crisis, she began working to promote a new ecological mindset in the 240 pages energy sector. She worked September 2019 as a landscaping specialist.

MARTINA BERGMANN was ENGLISH born in 1979 in Ostwestfalen. SAMPLE After graduating high school, The Black Forest, 1820. A savage boy is found, but no one knows where he comes from. The 224 pages TRANSLATIONAVAILABLE she fled to the big cities of February 2019 Munich, Hamburg and Berlin. adolescent Gabriel is handed over to a farming family for supervision. Because of his beauty and She studied Humanities and is elegance, he casts a spell over the people he encounters. He also possesses extensive knowledge a bookseller by trade. about homeopathy and saves the life of young Maria. More and more of the villagers fall under Gabriel’s mysterious charms. When the farmer’s wife secretly falls in love with Gabriel, the events Life is Beautiful! escalate and result in the deaths of several villagers. And the questions that occupy all of them become increasingly urgent: Who is this stranger? Where does he come from? What is he up to?

Martina Bergmann takes care of Martha, a woman in her mid-80s who has a particularly poetic outlook on life. Neither can say anymore how this came to be, but they are so happy sharing the same house that it hardly matters. Marie Brunntaler Pointedly and true to life Martina Bergmann portrays the experience of living with Martha, someone who, despite her illness, remains full of humor and wit. Her story The Simple Life shows that caring for someone suffering from dementia does not have to be a burden and, in fact, can be inspiring and life affirming.

And while this unconventional living arrangement strikes passersby as odd, 250 pages Martina wouldn’t have it any other way. May 2018

• A poignant novel about living with someone suffering from dementia, While still young sisters, Adele and Elisabeth have left home to explore the exciting new opportunities offered by the post-war economic miracle. In midlife, however, they regret having someone who was a virtual stranger and now has become family cut themselves off from their roots. They return to the southern Black Forest and decide to • For readers of Arno Geiger’s The Old King in His Exile and fans of the realize an old dream – their dream of a rose garden. Together they invest all that they have and tend a piece of wasteland in the hills, on the very spot where their brother Hans’ packaging movie Iris company once stood. • # 12 Independant Publisher's List Adele and Elisabeth want to give this land back to nature and create the most beautiful rose garden the Black Forest has ever seen. Against all odds and the voice of reason this is their chance to restore their family’s reputation and quite simply to become sisters again after all those years apart.

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Daniel Mellem daniel mellem The Invention of the Countdown die erfindung des countdowns Against his father’s will, Hermann Oberth moves to Göttingen in 1920 in order to study physics - the most exciting science of his age in the most exciting city roman there is. Hermann wants to turn the human dream of sending rockets to the moon into reality. The young man is considered very talented, but right before he makes his major breakthrough, his professor decides to stop supporting

»Daniel Mellem hat nicht nur einen mitreißenden Roman Hermann’s research. It now falls to his wife Tilla to keep their lives above water geschrieben – er hat eine Rakete gezündet!« Sasa Stanišic´ _ until someone believes in Hermann’s research again. When that happens, the person in question is Wernher von Braun, a member of the SS Corps. Instead of moon rockets, Hermann is invited to help develop the V2 rocket, c. 336 pages a retaliatory weapon for the Nazis to use. Hermann and Tilla are suddenly To be published in confronted with the question of their own personal responsibility when faced September 2020 by the march of history. This question becomes all the more important when they lose both their son Julius and their daughter Ilse to the war. In a countdown from 10 to 0, we follow a narrative about human errors, setbacks, and people picking themselves back up again. Scientific ethics come alive in this story plucked from modern history.

Anne Freytag Out of Black Water PRELIMINARY COVER The sea is the source of all life – and it conceals a deadly threat

In her company car, highly respected scientist and Minister of the Interior Dr. Patricia Kohlbeck hurtles without stopping into the Spree River. Her daughter Maja is sitting in the passenger seat and the last sentence she hears before her mother drowns is: “You can’t trust anyone. They’re all involved.”. Maja dies as well – but a short time later, she wakes back up. Her external body is unchanged, however it seems to be regenerating and c. 464 pages healing astonishingly quickly. Her senses also seem to be sharpened. She To be published in sets off in search of answers, which she finds from various people, including August 2020 Prof. Arthur Stein, her mother’s long-time research partner and lover. And then there is Efrail, who pulled Maja out of the sinking car. She feels strongly attracted to the young man - but she doesn’t know yet that he is actually the enemy.

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