Christoph Poschenrieder A Child with No Name

A modern saga about the fear of the other, set in a small village. After a year at university, Xenia returns to her home – a village in the middle of nowhere. She is pregnant, but does not want anyone to find out. When a dozen foreigners are provided with temporary accommodation in the school, there is uproar in the village. In order to restore peace, Xenia’s mother gets involved in an ominous deal with the secret ruler of the region, unknowingly endangering the life of her unborn grandchild.

»It is a mixture of love story and coming-of-age story about a young woman who is battling to find her way in life.«
Barbara Schulz / www.spiegel.de

»Poschenrieder deals masterfully with a highly topical subject by treating it at the local level. [...] Fairy-tale elements in the novel reinforce its archetypal note, while also tying the book in with a broader literary tradition.«
New Books in German, London

»This book is a coming-of-age novel, a love story and a political statement in one. [...] In conclusion: a page turner with depth.«
Manfred Papst / NZZ am Sonntag, Zurich

Philipp Keel All about me

The book series All About Me has sold over three million copies worldwide. This international classic amongst questionnaire books has been a hit for the last 20 years and is the simplest way to deepen your understanding of yourself and others. Most people find it easier to entrust their thoughts, worries and desires to a stranger. And it is even easier when someone asks exactly the right questions. All About Me was the first question and answer book ever, its 25 chapters designed to open up the most important details of the reader’s life. With questions on dreams and desires, fears and memories. No matter whether you read it alone or together with someone else, this book will reveal what you have never dared to ask yourself.

»A book that combines the form of a personal journal with the function of the psychiatrist’s couch.«
The New York Times Magazine

English edition available by Harmony Press.

Viktorija Tokarjewa My Men

A charming and unusual autobiography and an author’s homage to the men who shaped her writing career: ranging from a cheeky schoolboy, two authors, a screenplay writer, to Mikhail Gorbachev and a Swiss publisher. Viktorija Tokarjewa, the grande dame of Russian literature, tells the story of her life – by way of the men who helped her to become a writer and allowed her talent to blossom. These men believed in her, infuriated her, loved her, revolutionised her country, challenged her. And as a bonus track: a very personal essay about Viktorija Tokarjewa’s literary role model, Anton Chekhov.

We’d like to congratulate our author Viktorija Samoilowna Tokarjewa on the occasion of her 80th birthday on November 20. She published her first book of stories О том, чего не было (On what didn’t happen) in 1969. Since 1990, her German-speaking home is Diogenes, together with her world rights (except Russian). In her prose, we may catch a glimpse of what was once hidden on the other side of the Iron Curtain – and after 1991 what changed in the everyday lives of Russians with each new book. In Russia, 187 short stories, novellas, essays and a play by her are available in 392 different editions, compilations and reprints of her works.

Gems from our backlist: Sławomir Mrożek

25 years ago, in autumn 1992, Diogenes published Sławomir Mrożek for the first time. Among the first titles was the collection containing the story The Elephant, or Słon in its original. This story is a must-read satire of the socialist state, exemplified by a gas-filled elephant made of rubber, posing as a real one in a zoo.

How could this happen? The rubber elephant was the zoo director’s idea because he preferred the money for the real elephant to be saved for the progress of the nation – and instead show a rubber elephant in his zoo. The gas was the zoo workers’ contribution because they couldn’t finish inflating it and the gas from the heating was simply available. Reality and socialist ideal become harder and harder to reconcile when the elephant flies away under the eyes of a school class while they are supposed to learn about a real elephant’s weight of several tonnes.

The Polish original publication of The Elephant dates back to 1957, that is exactly 60 years ago. It was the autumn that the Sputnik was launched into space, a time in which it wasn’t that obvious who would win the space race and the Cold War.

By the way: Mrożek’s fans will celebrate his 90th birthday in 2020. What would he have said if he had known that his plays – most of all Emigrants or Police – are today more topical than ever and played all over Europe?

Christian Schünemann / Jelena Volic Lily-of-the-Valley White. A Case for Milena Lukin

A new challenge for criminologist Milena Lukin, inspired by real-life crimes with fateful consequences and set in Belgrade, a city in flux, between East and West. Still today bouquets of white lilies-of-the-valley are laid in Belgrade Street, where a small Romani boy was once beaten to death by two youths. One of the teenagers was imprisoned, while the other was able to flee. Twenty-five years later, he returns to Belgrade to confront his past – and is found dead in the Danube river a short while later. The police declare it to be a suicide and promptly close the case. The lawyer of the dead man and criminologist Milena Lukin find themselves confronted by a puzzle – that is, until they stumble upon a clue which leads them into the darkest recesses of Serbian politics, and to a murder which shaped the fate of an entire country.

Rights sold:
English (Haus Publishing)

Philipp Keel All about us

This enthralling book for couples offers in 22 chapters with questions on the past, present and future the best way to get to know each other all over again. You are in a relationship and want to gain a deeper insight of each other? With questions about romanticism or sex, day-to-day life with one another or mutual dreams, All About Us invites you to get to know yourself and your partner more than you ever thought possible. Whether you fill it out together or alone, whether you talk about it or keep it a secret, this unique book will show you that love is the best answer.

English edition available by Harmony Press.

Lukas Hartmann Wild Sophie

A fairytale-like story about helicopter parents who smother their children with their love.

To make sure nothing can harm his son Jan, King Ferdinand surrounds him with an entire army of minders, from walkers and insect hunters to clothes warmers and cod liver oil administrators. It is no wonder that Jan is such a shy and pale little guy. Until he meets wild Sophie, who does all the things he is forbidden to doing, and whose way of life is so different from his – wild and dangerous!

Lukas Hartmann’s best-selling children’s book, which has also found success as a children’s play.

»Wild Sophie will impress you with a nuanced poetic language that is not often found in children’s literature.«
Fundevogel, Frankfurt

»Wild Sophie is captivating even 27 years after she was first published.«
Hanna Widman / Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin

Christmas with Loriot

Every single year! Even if there used to be more tinsel, Christmas is still at its most beautiful with Loriot. Alongside the legendary Advent story, this volume collects together more than 100 illustrations about industrious party preparations, presents that are guaranteed to delight and contemplative moments on Christmas Eve.

Please note: A calm Christmas is the result of a lack of imagination. A deafening racket is proof that Christmas isn’t just an empty word for you.

The sixth volume in this series has just been published, too: All Year Round with Loriot

How time flies! It seems like spring has only just sprung, but before long the leaves are changing colour again and Christmas is well on its way. In over 100 illustrations, Loriot leads the way through the year and shows how to cut a fine figure in any season – whether it's at carnival, Easter, in the summer heat, Oktoberfest, in the snow or at New Years’.

Please note: Everything looks brighter as soon as the sun shines.

Over 20.000 copies sold of The Genius

We are happy to share the news with you that we have sold more than 20’000 copies of Klaus Cäsar Zehrer’s debut novel The Genius, we’re in the fifth print run – and that only three months after publication, hardcover only.

The press is enthusiatic, too:

». . . so gripping that you do not want to put it down even after the first page. [. . .] The author weaves a magnificent novel of development.«
Annette Bruhns / Spiegel Wissen, Hamburg

»This well-researched and brilliantly fictionalised debut novel is an engrossing read. […] This is an eloquent, clever and poignant book which will enthral a wide range of readers.«
New Books in German, London

»Klaus Cäsar Zehrer wrote a fabulous novel, clever and thrilling.«
Alexander Kissler / Cicero, Berlin

»Sparkling with a passion for storytelling [. . .] All in all, a wonderful story of real-life events.«
Ulrich Noller / SWR 2, Baden-Baden