Irma, 40, has transformed the ›Zum Hirschen‹ inn into the popular vegetarian restaurant ›Aubergine‹. The creative proprietress employs a motley crew: a 17-year-old school truant as her Girl Friday; a gossipy commis chef; a former globetrotter as waiter and manager. And the 80-year-old ›vegetable man‹, who helps to prep the vegetables and is believed to be almost deaf. And like in any close-knit community, it’s not all sunshine; there’s conflict too.

Maja and Cora have been friends ever since they were sixteen. They are not easily outdone by men when it comes to daring, and they do not draw too fine a line between trivial offences, murder and manslaughter. Woe betide anyone who gets in the way of their fun in Tuscany! ›Die Häupter meiner Lieben‹ is a dashing novel which describes how the two heroines solve their family problems in their own particular way. In the loveless environment in which she grew up, Maja was known as »elephant«, and the only way she could get what she needed was through petty theft - until she met the mysterious, unfathomable Cora through whose influence she gradually frees herself from her family ties. On the other hand Cora the artist works off her discomfiture on her pictures which are vaguely reminiscent of Judith and Holofernes. And it does not take long for real life to catch up with her paintings... ›Die Häupter meiner Lieben‹ is a fantastic story which is certainly not lacking in charm or chutzpah!

There is a Spanish saying, »The tongue is like a dagger in the flesh.« But what happens when a mother and son speak in false tongues, deceiving each other at every turn? Ingrid Noll's Collected Short Stories relate the tales of unusual mothers and peculiar men. How did the virgin give birth to a child? The book begins with a retelling of the story of Christmas. A conservative dominatrix, an unhappy mother, an amorous dog, a carnival souvenir and an unusual half-sister narrate the joys and suffering of motherhood. The men too display unexpected talents, whether it be collecting autographs, fishing, knitting sweaters, inviting home their female students – or even bumping off their wives in elegant fashion. Malicious pleasures bring variety into everyday drudgery, and unexpected presents lead to an ill-fated Christmas…

There is no love lost between dreamy Paul and his lively younger brother Achim. Indeed, everlasting peace does not exactly prevail when the family comes together in the family home in Mainz after Father's funeral. As the old saying goes - as God brings death to a man, so the Devil reunites his heirs! An inscrutable mother, two vastly dissimilar brothers and a disagreeable daughter-in-law find themselves in the family home in Mainz after the funeral of the hypochondriac father, who has departed this world. They have not seen each other for some time, with good reason, and the old squabbles resurface almost immediately. Was the old man's departure really of natural causes? The brothers – Paul and Achim – create wild fantasies on the theme, while daughter-in-law Annette gambles with her marriage. In her new novel, Ingrid Noll is as sensitive and as pitiless as never before. Complicated women and morbid men: ›Rabenbrüder‹ come from a family in which everyone creates obstacles for the rest. This is Ingrid Noll at her dark and narrative best!

Mama's baby – papa's maybe? ›Cuckoo's Child‹ is a story about three paternity tests, a pregnancy test, a baby in a laundry basket, a few dead persons and unconventional family bliss in a nest which, though entirely unfamiliar, is nonetheless rather cosy. »A little house with a garden, a happy marriage and above all two children, those were my goals in life«, Anja, a teacher in her late thirties thinks to herself. Far from having reached her goals, she is stuck in a ›rat hole‹ as she calls the lodging into which she fled following her divorce. When her colleague Birgit becomes pregnant, Anja can't help suspecting the child was conceived by her own ex-husband. She persuades Birgit's husband secretly to undergo a paternity test. The side effects are potentially dangerous… With an equal portion of humour and insight into the slings and arrows of nest-building, ›Cuckoo's Child‹ depicts family constellations which are anything but boring and common. In the process she shows that the road to happiness is not always straight and smooth.

Annerose enters another life when she escapes from her grey housewife's existence into the heavily symbolic still-lifes of the baroque era: magnificent bou-quets of flowers, delectable dishes and mysterious objects from past centuries lift her out of her everyday rut, and when she is painting small idylls herself, she manages to forget the world around her. But danger lurks. Tormented by fearful dreams, she foresees disaster which is probably triggered by her own negligence. Is Richard looking for caresses which she has withheld? Are architects in suede jackets more interesting than one's own husband in a pin-striped suit? And what role do her friends Silvia and Lucie, the accomplished hostesses, play? It's a good thing Annerose has the support of her half-sister Ellen, for her friends turn out to be unreliable. And then, one of the members of the happy circle lies dead in bed…

These unforgettable stories grant insights into an impressive life, a writer’s work and aging, showing a very personal side of the ›Grande Dame‹ of German crime fiction – funny, affectionate, wicked.

The entire Ingrid Noll gamut in short-story form: her criminal wit, her warm-hearted life experience, her down-to-earth gift of observation. In this book, there’s a cherry on top: autobiographical writing, resonant and impressive. A letter to her deceased mother, the role of her father. How she fell in love with her first grandchild. The first years of her life in China. How she would like her last 24 hours to play out. What annoys her about getting old.

»I am made of two different dreams.«
Ingrid Noll

Friends Nina and Franziska live in the same building on the market square in a small town in southwest Germany. In a fit of champagne-induced enthusiasm, they and four other women found the ›Nutters’ Club‹, based on the idea that there is something odd about each one of them. 
When Nina loses her handbag, she makes the fateful acquaintance of Andreas Haase. Not satisfied with the usual finder’s fee, he wants more – and Nina will need to rely on her best friend more than ever before.

She may not be beautiful, but she can cook and lend a hand. That's why Lorina has become a carer to the elderly, and she's hit the jackpot with her appointment at the Alsfelder Villa - where there's an endless coming and going of attractive massage therapists and affairs occur that are better kept secret. Further excitement is supplied by an imposed poodle and an abandoned baby, which visibly cheer up the old lady in Lorina's care. Much to the disapproval of her great-nephew, who is waiting in the wings for his inheritance.

A treacherous tumble and Willy Knobel, almost ninety-years-old, is hospital-bound. The prognosis is bad: the doctors expect he has only a few weeks left. In spite of his son Harald's loud protests, his daughter-in-law Petra insists that the old man be cared for by them in their home. It will not be for long anyway. Who could have foreseen Max's vanilla pudding regime making his grandfather fighting fit again. The better the patient feels, however, the more Harald and Petra's life begins to unravel. While the pair of them ponder how they can decently get rid of the disturber of their peace, Max flirts with the carer, Jenny. She, however, has a dark secret. In this bitter-sweet comedy, Ingrid Noll shows that ideal families are as rare as any holy family. But also that there are beautiful moments to be had in human encounters, regardless of age.

Nelly just got rid of Matthew. But being a thirty-something single mum, she has to find a way to earn some extra money. Luckily, she has plenty of space and a talent for cooking, so Nelly invites paying guests over to her house for lunch. Among the few women are more interesting men: a captain, who has not been at sea in ages, a very tanned sports instructor, an insurance salesman and an equally handsome and smart electrician. Unfortunately, the latter does not turn up alone. The good thing is though, that his better half suffers from a nut allergy... Ingrid Noll cooks up something special, where she mingles with people as well as with ingredients.

A lovingly concerned, ironic, and dark crime tragedy on the question of why some treasures are better left undiscovered, and why not every end justifies the means.

»Many of our fellow students look like bankers, neat and tidy, boring, and conventional. Not a trace of opposition, all working hard, and striving for good degrees and lucrative jobs.«

Five young people want to show our throwaway society how to do better: Aunt Emma’s old farmhouse won’t be demolished but turned into an alternative student house. Except for one thing – the necessary renovations cost money. Then a sack of valuable gold coins turns up at Emma’s junk shop. But the treasure doesn’t spell the end of their problems. Instead, it leads them into more trouble, introducing them to the less attractive impulses of the human heart.

Luisa, 15, who was adopted from Peru as a baby, has a sheltered upbringing with affluent parents. She has a special gift: Luisa can see in the dark. When she encounters a young homeless man in the nearby woods, she takes him to her heart. Tim relies on her help and her willingness to conceal him, because he has every reason to remain invisible. Luisa’s gift turns her into an accomplice, entangling her in a web of lies and crime that becomes harder and harder to escape.

Finding herself in the grip of an unholy obsession, Rosemarie is soon phoning Engstern just to hear his voice, spying on him from his own garden just to get a glimpse of him. But Rosemarie doesn't like what she sees, for she is not the only woman who wants this charismatic man, and how can she possibly compete with women half her age, not to mention an unpredictable wife?

Charlotte, aged 83 and still sprightly, comes from well-ordered circumstances. She always clears up before visitors arrive, and several people have spent the night at her place. Now someone special has announced his arrival: Hugo, her brother-in-law, for whom she always had a weakness. Can it be that they will pass a romantic evening together? Will their story have a happy end? Charlotte makes her plans with longing tinged with anxiety, but above all she is invaded by vivid memories of her eventful past: how she fought her way through during the war and the post-war years as a single mother, and how long it took for the wounds of a shattered love to heal. But Charlotte is not a pathetic figure, she is a wise woman with wit and charm whose final trump is her age... Her life together with a man who was not her husband, her fear of being an old maid, and a man who came back too late from the war – all this combines to make a colourful picture in which the joy and love of life have a prominent place – provided that the principles of marriage are not taken too seriously. Ingrid Noll's heroine's narrations of a disseminated family are touching and tragicomic at one and the same time. It is no coincidence that Cora, who contrived to make her Tuscan lover disappear beneath the tiles on the terrace, is Charlotte's granddaughter...