Hedwig is an unmarried woman who works in the countryside as a primary school teacher. Already at a young age, she frequently reports being ill. The pastor sees her as a lost soul; the doctor diagnoses a nervous disorder — and her family doesn’t understand her.

It is the turn of the 20th century — an old era gives way to modernity, and Hedwig is leading a quiet, solitary life. Her emotional outbreaks begin to increasingly unsettle those around her. Eventually, the rise of the Nazi dictatorship puts her life as a mentally ill woman in grave danger.

A group of childhood friends are just beginning to go their separate ways when one of them is suddenly arrested for murder, charged with killing his uncle out of greed. The seemingly endless trial, based on circumstantial evidence, turns everything on its head. The accused man’s friends take his side: surely he cannot – he must not – be a murderer. But fifteen years after the verdict, when a journalist reopens the investigation, loyalties are brought into question once more.

Five old friends – successful, affluent men who have shaped the country – venture into an experiment. Together they found a flatshare in a beautiful house with a sea view, and make a pact: each of them should be able to die in the way he chooses – and the others will help him. But first they enjoy their retirement. They smoke, drink, eat, what and when they want, without having wives or nurses telling them not to. When it gets serious for the first of them, they activate the ›Death Angel Programme‹ as designed by the computer buff of the flatshare. And they hire Katarina, a nurse from Kirgizia, who has her very own ideas about how to fill the villa with life again...

A writer is led into temptation by the German Foreign Office.

The novel about the power of conspiracy theories and fake news tells the story of a genuine historical event with mischievous and laconic humour.

Who is to blame for World War I? In 1918 the question becomes ever more urgent. In his villa on Lake Starnberg the bestselling writer Gustav Meyrink receives an offer from the German Foreign Office. Would he be willing – for a decent fee – to write a novel pinning the blame for all the blood spilled on the freemasons? Meyrink, who is actually an unpatriotic writer and yoga practitioner, accepts the advance – and gets himself into hot water.

»Words win wars.«