Whether it’s on the ostrich farm, at the gym, the currywurst stand or the beach, in this hidden object book you'll find countless people, animals and little stories on every page – and in their midst, Hazel Brugger and Thomas Spitzer. For their series Deutschland Was Geht, these two comedians visited bizarre locations and events all over the country. Children will love this hidden object book, and fans will find familiar locations and details.

Is your life very eventful right now, or already suspiciously calm? Sometimes all you need is the right question at the right time in order to deviate from the path – or to find it in the first place. These are the kinds of questions Rolf Dobelli asks us. When we surrender to them, we quickly find out how happy we are. And also figure out what we really want.

Above all, Alfred Andersch achieved literary fame as a storyteller: it was as a storyteller that he celebrated his greatest success, both with his readers and the critics, it was as a storyteller that he was awarded, and as a storyteller that he secured his place in the history of German post-war literature. This new volume collects the best of his realistic and fantastical stories – stories that contain entire life stories, ghost stories, snapshots in the tradition of the American short story, political stories, family stories – prose pieces in which Andersch devotes himself again and again to new literary forms.

Did you know that Donna Leon has an American friend who built a gondola all on his own? Such a thing is unheard of. And this is not the only story she has to tell about Venice's most prominent symbol, the icon so familiar to us all. Did you know, for example, that a gondola is constructed from over 200 pieces and 8 different types of wood? In this richly illustrated book Donna Leon has interesting, astonishing and amusing facts to tell. During the golden age of the Serenissima in the 17th and 18th centuries, the European nobility indulged in extravagant Carnival festivities. Back then, both visitors and inhabitants were listening to the barcarole. A selection of these beautiful songs in Venetian dialect can be heard on the enclosed cd, enframed with instrumental music. The singer Vincenzo Capezzuto is accompanied by the recently created ensemble ›Il Pomo d'Oro‹ conducted by Riccardo Minasi.

With photographs by Johannes Paul Spengler. On the road across the USA, from the East to the West coast, notebook and camera at the ready. Pictures, landscapes, people, experiences and stories come unite in a song with many voices, a love song to traveling and to life before death. A loud bang – and the Mercedes 300 Turbo Diesel in which the author Astrid Rosenfeld and the photographer Johannes Paul Spengler wanted to drive from New York to San Franscisco has been crashed into by another car before they have even left Manhattan. Totalled. »You can’t kill a Mercedes«, the used-car salesman had told them, and that the car was in excellent condition with only one previous owner. His Eau de Toilette was even still in the glove compartment, and Astrid Rosenfeld secretly names the unknown man Frankie. And then the journey begins. Not in Frankie’s car, after all, but with his spirit and his story along for the ride nonetheless. An adventure-filled road trip across Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas to California, filled with crazy, absurd and heart-wrenching encounters.

A beautifully designed art book featuring over 150 ink and pencil drawings.

Christoph Niemann has provided covers for the New Yorker and New York Times Magazine and was commissioned to create a special edition of Zeit Magazin in 2016.

Christoph Niemann’s pictures tell stories of unfamiliar places. They are observations on travelling, arriving, and immersing oneself, on the melancholy of being on the road and the adventure of discovering new places. Virtuoso iconic sketches, capable of capturing the magic, light and mood of a place in a handful of strokes.

One of the most talented and inventive artists of our times: Christoph Niemann at Diogenes.

In ›Venetian Curiosities‹ Donna Leon tells amazing tales from the Venetian past, whilst ›Il Complesso Barocco‹ offers virtuosities by Antonio Vivaldi on the CD which accompanies this book. Venice is unique. And so is its history. But what is most remarkable are the stories that the inhabitants tell each other about what happened in the past. Donna Leon has picked up the most intriguing customs and events recounting anecdotes that might or might not be true, and thus the Serenissima is seen from an astonishing side. An elephant seeks refuge in the church of S. Antonin, courtesans are supposed to convert men to proper heterosexual behaviour, gamblers bet their palazzos, people are convicted though they prove to be innocent – Venice is full of curious and odd episodes. These stories are of as rich a diversity as the music of Antonio Vivaldi: The CD presents seven solo concerts: Violin, cello, oboe and bassoon, viola, violone and harpsichord, they all play their part. ›Il Complesso Barocco‹, founded in 1979 by Alan Curtis, is an international ensemble dedicated to Baroque music on original instruments. It has played a fundamental role in the modern revival of Baroque operas, especially those of Monteverdi, Vivaldi and Handel. ›Il Complesso Barocco‹ received the ›Antonio Vivaldi International Recording Prize‹ in 1997 as best production in the vocal section. For their Handel recordings they were awarded the ›Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik‹ in 2003 as well as, on several occasions, the international ›Handel Recording Prize‹.

Yves Saint Laurent, Madame Grès, Le Sorelle Fontana and Christian Dior – the German fashion designer Yorn knew them all.

A book about moments of happiness – a book that makes you happy.

With new drawings by Sempé.

The streets of Paris are paved with happiness. Exhilarating encounters and inspiring memories from a connoisseur of life itself.
The fashion designer Yorn has experienced many magical moments in his life. Be it as a young man in Paris, where he was hired on the spot as an assistant by Christian Dior, or a daring wager with Yves Saint Laurent; be it while founding his own fashion label on the Champs-Elysees or while acting on the idea of bringing Parisian chic to Germany – happiness has always smiled down on him. And the more he shares his happiness with others, the greater it gets.

Delicacies with and without calories: 91 recipes as Paola cooks them in the Brunetti novels, written down by Donna Leon’s friend and favourite cook Roberta Pianaro. As a calorie free intermediate course, there are six culinary stories by Donna Leon as well as beautiful vignettes by Tatjana Hauptmann.

Food plays an important role in Donna Leon’s novels. Roberta Pianaro lets readers in on the cooking secrets of Paola Brunetti. Brunetti’s favourite dish, that of the kids, Paola’s apple pie, but also a recipe from Brunetti’s mother and Donna Leon’s favourite meal – they can all be found in this book.

Plus a foreword and six culinary stories by Donna Leon. At Table with the Brunettis is a literary cookbook about Venetian cuisine, for browsing – and for trying out the recipes at home.

A classical short novella.

Taken from the previously published story collection Three Stories and a Reflection, now in a new edition with wonderful illustrations by Jean-Jacques Sempé.

Two men are seated across a chess board in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. One is an ingenious upstart, the other an old champion caught in his old ways.
It’s time for the apéritif, but none of the onlookers would even think of leaving the scene.
Who is the audience’s favourite? And which king will fall first?

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.

In The Judge and his Hangman (1950) Dürrenmatt's investigator takes to the stage for the first time: Inspector Bärlach, an old fossil of the judicial system. For health reasons, he has only very little time left to solve a murder case. Bärlach's approach to the issues of justice, morality, guilt and punishment is a common thread running through all of Dürrenmatt's crime novels. In Suspicion (1951), for example, the inspector fights once more against death and injustice, driven by his boundless defiance at »existing in this world and fighting for another one, a better one«. In The Pledge (1958) another investigator, Matthäi, doggedly tries to hunt down a child-murderer, showing no fear of danger or its consequences. Justice (1985) focuses on a young lawyer's entanglement in the delicate web of justice, the judicial system and morality. Dürrenmatt began his fifth (and uncompleted) crime novel The Pensioner (1995) as early as 1969, but kept re-writing it. The novel's protagonist, the ill, gluttonous Inspector Höchstettler, is the spitting image of Bärlach.

›I'm no musician,‹ says Donna Leon. ›I can't read music. I know nothing about musical theory. I'm a follower, a groupie, call me what you will: I am a heart with a pair of ears stuck on, one that for over ten years has been listening almost exclusively to music by Handel.‹ While listening, it struck Donna Leon that Handel's music is teeming with animals, that he again and again gives voice to animals through his notation. What is Handel's intention when a snake hisses through an aria or when armies of frogs penetrate the King's chambers? Donna Leon investigates. She tells us how animals have informed the imagination, beliefs and superstitions since year dot. Handel's Bestiary reveals a different side to Donna Leon: she is not only an appreciator of music, but also an expert in the symbolism of medieval bestiaries. Michael Sowa has also taken inspiration from those animals to create these marvellous images.
The arias on the attached CD are performed by the Handel expert Alan Curtis and his orchestra, Il Complesso Barocco. Divertimento fantastico!

On the way home, a fifteen-year-old boy called Michael Berg gets into difficulties. A woman in her mid-thirties helps him out. Some time later, the boy takes her a bunch of flowers as a way of saying thank you. He visits her again. Hanna is the first woman he has ever desired, and a secret love begins. But there is something dark and mysterious about Hanna, and she reacts irritably to his questions about who she is. One day she disappears. She vanishes from Michael's life, but not from his thoughts. As a student of law he encounters Hanna again in court. The young man gets a shock when he realises he has loved a criminal. He can see no rhyme nor reason in the way Hanna behaves during the trial. That is, until the scales fall from his eyes. For Hanna is not only guilty of a cruel crime, she also has a desperately well-protected secret. The past is unveiled – Michael's past love, and the past of Germany. Michael realises that he cannot escape from either of them. A woman who is difficult to understand or accept, either for Michael or the reader. And the dilemma of a generation.

Florian wants to organise a fashion show in memory of his lover Alfred who died of cancer a year ago. The idea is to show a particularly fine example from each collection: a tomato-coloured wrap-around dress from 1996, black cashmere trousers from 1998, a cream satin sheathe from 1999 – and naturally the blue dress from spring 2000. During his search for one of the models, Florian comes across Babette who bought the blue dress, a dream made of Mediterranean blue organza. »The dress will change your life!« Alfred had said when he saw Babette stepping gingerly out of the cabin. And he did not promise too much, for a great deal happened since then.