How does a novel come into being? How do characters become lifelike and alive? What does ›to condense one’s style‹ mean? And how do you tackle crises? Using his own work, and other well-known works as examples, Benedict Wells tells of the magic and fascination of writing. But The Stories Inside Us is also a personal foray from his childhood to his first publications. A wise and moving book.
 

Donna Leon has led an adventurous life, and with her tell-tale knack for observation, she turns her experiences in America, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Italy (of course) and Switzerland into a captivating read. She takes us on a journey around the world, from growing up on a farm, to curfew pajama parties in Iran, financial straits, and a Fiat 600. And we join Donna as she arrives in Italy as a chaperone, as she hunts for the perfect cappuccino, and as she encounters small marvels in the mountains.

»There is no worse crime than not having loved.«
Donna Leon

The history of the >Magic Mountain< in its entirety: from the early days of Davos, via Thomas Mann, to the World Economic Forum. An expansive panorama of 20th Century history.

A lovesick narrator journeys with his daughter to snowy Davos. Their ›family vacation‹ becomes an enjoyable meditation on the effects of the modern age, skiing and the tuberculosis pandemic. Ohler also explores how a poor mountain village became the symbol of global wealth. And, just like in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, the truly difficult questions emerge amid the masses of snow: In what way do our ways of life need to change? And what kind of world are we passing on to our children?

Dr. Isidor Geller has made it: he is a highly respected business man, an advisor to the Austrian government, a multi-millionaire, an opera lover, art collector and, after two failed marriages, is in a relationship with a beautiful singer. He has come a long way: from a shtetl in the furthest, most impoverished recesses of Galicia to the most elite circles of Viennese society. 
No one can touch him now, Isidor is sure of that – and certainly not those vulgar National Socialists.
But in 1938, everything changes from one day to the next.

»In the hands of great authors, characters are like real people, merely realer«, Donna Leon once said. Perhaps this is why her life is so rich in characters and people accompanying her, both real and fictional.

Backstage presents a colorful troupe: the rock genius Frank Zappa, Veniceʼs most famous diamond dealer, a courageous sex worker and womenʼs rights activist, a clever composer, tragic heroes and admired colleagues. In the hands of Donna Leon, these encounters turn into sparkling jewels. A treasure trove of delightful discoveries.

Heroes have to set out into the big wide world and have adventures in order to become heroes – otherwise there’d be no story. But what about heroines? 

Doris Dörrie recounts three journeys, to San Francisco, Japan and Morocco, describing what it’s like to travel the world as a woman. Facing the unknown and dealing with the foreign always means confronting your own fears, privileges and losses. But in the process, you become the heroine of your own tale.

The far north of Iceland, around the turn of the nineteenth century. With his rope ferry, Jón Magnússon Ósmann transports people, animals and wares across the waters of the Skagafjord. He’s a fisherman and a seal hunter who sees ghosts and elves; a friend of all mankind who cares for and shelters those in need; and he’s also a God-fearing drinker and poet. Larger-than-life, strong and companionable, and yet so tormented by his own fate that the floods he has sailed for over forty years begin to lure him in. Bursting with life, this is an almost unbelievable story based on a real life.

Their methods are agile, they are proactive and present lasting and scalable solutions – top managers live in a different sphere. Up where the air is thin, and a single faux pas can mean tumbling into the abyss. But now women are finding their way into the tie-wearers’ habitat, and remote work, so beloved among employees, is making leadership appear to be all mouth and no trousers. The challenges are becoming ever more diverse. Who can still be trusted, and who can’t? The top squad is losing its grip.

Stories about the kind of goodbyes that weigh heavy upon us, and the ones that set us free, about the success and failure of love, about trust and betrayal, about menacing and overpowering memories and how the right thing often comes into the wrong life, and the wrong thing into the right life.
Stories about people in different phases of life and about their hopes and entanglements.
»Love and do what thou wilt« is not a recipe for a happy ending, but an answer for when all other answers fail.

Stories that surprise, disturb, and delight.

A journalist who knows too much. A son who betrays his father. A merciless oligarch. A corrupt, unscrupulous hack. Media that tear down reputations to order. 

Sasha Filipenko tells the story of Anton Quint, an idealistic journalist who decides to take on an oligarch. His powerful opponent gives the order to destroy Quint – and so the hunt is on. 

Bastian Schweinsteiger, the hero of the 2014 World Cup Final in Rio, is also the hero of Martin Suter’s latest novel. The author weaves in true (and almost true) details about the life of a man who achieved everything it is possible to achieve as a footballer. Yet Schweinsteiger also knows what it’s like to fail, and he’s no stranger to the dark side of success. This is the moving story of an extraordinary career – and a touching love story.

Fourteen-year-old Billie rarely crosses the boundaries of her high-rise housing estate. By the end of the month their money barely stretches to pasta with ketchup, but her mother, Marika, lights up Billie’s world with her imagination and big heart. One day, however, they receive an unwelcome visit from her Hungarian grandmother, and Billie loses much more than the colourful everyday life she shared with her mother. No longer able to ask Marika any more questions, Billie sets off alone in their old Nissan – she is determined to meet the father she never knew and find out why she keeps dreaming about the sea, even though she’s never been there.

»The beginning was the last day before the summer holidays.
The beginning was a song on the radio.
The beginning was big plans.«
Elena Fischer

By the writer of the Spiegel bestseller Love in Case of Emergency: 3 weeks at # 1 with over 300’000 copies sold.

Bestselling author Daniela Krien’s short story collection, including a previously unpublished story and a foreword by the writer.

A country collapsed – what happens to the people who once lived there?

Every radical change has its victims, even a peaceful revolution. Daniela Krien bears witness to the fate of a generation by telling stories of people whose lives lost their equilibrium at a historical turning point. She writes about deep despair and loss of orientation. Yet these miniature novels go beyond individual fates; they sketch out a portrait of the people of today.

A book about keeping one’s head above water despite it all, about going on despite it all, about surviving and coping.

Ten great stories written over ten years provide multifaceted insights into how a writer develops. Touching, surprising and tragic, funny, wise and fun – Benedict Wells can turn his hand to anything.

These are stories about everything and nothing. Stories about the misfortune of being free, and about a woman facing an existential decision. About a place where no one goes voluntarily, yet which still becomes a home. About a struggling present-day screenwriter catapulted back to the New Hollywood of 1973, giving him four years's time to steal the most famous movie idea of the 20th century. Last but not least a story from the world of The End of Loneliness, that casts a light on a dark family secret.
Ten very different stories from a world in which lies, dreams truths flow together. By turns touching, funny, surprising, and often unforgettable.

The grand new novel by the author of New York Times #1 bestseller The Reader!

This is the story of a woman who fights and finds herself, and a man who dreams and loses himself. Their moving love is entwined with the twisting paths of German history, leading us from the late 19th to the early 21st century, from Germany to Africa and the Arctic, from the Baltic Sea to Southwest Germany.
An intelligent woman fights the prejudices of her time.
A hopeless man loses himself in African and Arctic escapades, driven by the power-hungry dreams of his time. He can only confront reality in failure – like so many of his generation. She remains tied to him throughout her life – in thought, letters and a great rebellion. This is the story of their love.

A novel full of history.