»A difficult childhood is like an invisible enemy: you never know when it will come for you.«

Jules and his brother and sister Marty and Liz are all very different, but a tragic event marks all their lives. Having grown up in idyllic circumstances, they lose their parents in an accident. Although they are all sent to the same boarding school, each of them goes their own way, becoming strangers to one another and losing contact. Jules in particular, once a paragon of confidence, withdraws more and more into a dream world. The only friendship he makes is with the mysterious Alva, but he will only realize what she means to him years later – and what she has never told him. When Jules meets Alva again as an adult, it looks like they could make up for lost time. But then the past catches up with them.

Featured title in New Books in German

Beck is not a man to be envied. His music career came to nothing, his safe job as a teacher bores him to tears, and his love life is a disaster. And then he discovers an incredible musical talent: his student Rauli Kantas from Lithuania. Now the mysterious boy’s manager, he sees a second chance – but he has no idea what he’s letting himself in for...

A tragicomic novel about missed opportunities and dreams grown old, about love, Bob Dylan and a road trip to Istanbul. A magical summer where everything appears possible again.

Jesper Lier, 20, has come to Berlin full of expectations: He hopes for an exciting life in the city of promise and for a fulminant start as a writer. Instead, he lives in a damp cellar on Prenzlauerberg, his novel ›The Fellow Sufferer‹ has turned into a monstrosity, and his aversion against society and the self-celebrating city has turned him into a loner. Jesper alternately consumes alcohol and sleeping pills and develops alarming daydreams. Until one day his friends Gustav and Frank turn up at his place and drag him out of his loneliness. For one crazy week, the three friends experience a Dionysian odyssey through Berlin during which Jesper not only bumps into the girl of his dreams but also many odd individuals and even his own literary characters. And they do not always mean well when they meet their author.

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.

Francis Dean lives with his mother in a rundown trailer park in New Jersey. He figures he will probably live there until he dies. That is, until the day when he finds out the truth about how he was brought into the world. Apparently his existence is the result of an absurd experiment that his mother took part in. And it seems that his father is not some loser who left his family in the lurch after all, but a scientific genius from Harvard. Meeting him could change Francis' life. Together with his best friend Grover, an eccentric brain-box, and the girl of his dreams, the delicate, unpredictable Anne-May, he sets off on a cross-country journey to the West coast to find his father. Francis wants to find out who he really is, and he has nothing to lose – or does he? A dramatic journey of discovery with unrelenting twists and turns and a truly breathtaking showdown.

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.
 

Missouri, 1985: In an attempt to escape a troubled home life, fifteen-year-old Sam takes a holiday job in an old cinema. And for the duration of one magical summer, everything is turned on its head. He finds friends, falls in love and discovers the secrets of his hometown. For the first time ever, he is no longer an unremarkable outsider. Until something happens that forces him to grow up.

A homage to 1980s coming-of-age movies like The Breakfast Club and Stand By Me - the story of a summer that will never be forgotten.