›Aurora's Motive‹ ist an electrifying novel of feminism gone mad, based on the true story of Aurora Rodriguez. Born in 1890 into the stifling world of provincial bourgeois Spain, Aurora Rodriguez grew up precocious, virtually self-educated, filled with longings for self-realization and cloudy Nietzschean dreams (gleaned from her father's library) of a world made better by a Superwoman – if not herself, than a daughter. In 1914, after her parents died, she moved to Madrid and gave birth to a daughter, Hildegart, whom she proceeded to raise by herself, with utter devotion and according to her own theories, to be the Valkyrie of the New Era. Hildegart was indeed a prodigy – a thirteen-year-old law student at Madrid's Central University, a brilliant socialist activist who led campaigns for sexual freedom and the creation of the Spanish Republic - until, at the age of 17, she fell under the spell of the notoriously seductive H.G. Wells, who invited her to leave Spain. Torn between the superwoman persona her mother had created for her and her own, more worldly desires, Hildegart begged Aurora to rescue her. And so Aurora did…

A love story that begins at a sickbed: in January 1937, the Austrian Karl Sequens is admitted to hospital in Valencia as part of a transport of wounded volunteers. When he and Herminia Roudière Perpiñá meet it is love at first sight for them both. They get married without delay as if they knew there was not much time left to them. One year later their daughter Rosa María is born, shortly before the defeat of the Spanish republic they lose touch. Herminia flees with the child, first to France and subsequently to Vienna where Karl's sister receives her with bad grace and finally has her evacuated to Bavaria. Herminia hasn't heard from her husband for years when three letters arrive: from Dachau, Lublin and Auschwitz. The study of Love at First Sight paces our era and continent, tying up hope and sorrow, yearning for justice and for happiness. First of all it is the persisting plea for a love into death; an affection that is living on in their daughter and leading in a new love – at a sickbed again. A radical, deeply moving love story, told in a fascinatingly clear and vivid language, shamingly uncontemporary!

The gripping story of a young gypsy girl born in the year the Nazis came to power in Germany. Adopted by a loving working-class family, Sidonia grows up as a nurtured and protected child in a small, impoverished Austrian town. The times are turbulent and saturated with fear and violence. Everything foreign is perceived as dangerous, and general insecurity turns into hatred. Sidonia looks different than the other children in town, she cannot hide her heritage. As the Nazis gain influence and power, danger mounts for her and her socialist foster parents. They are exposed to increasing pressure until ultimately their very lives are threatened and Sidonia's fate lies in the hands of the townspeople. As a mercilessly sober chronicler of facts, Hackl presents us with historical events that were long suppresssed. Yet beyond the actual individual case the clear intensity of his language evokes the fate of all those who are persecuted for their ethnic origin, political beliefs, or religious background. In the end, no reader can escape the haunting question who has to bear responsibility for injustice that was committed and that still is committed today.