Dr. Armand Gruber always played an imposing role in Swiss journalist Mario’s life. Gruber is a man of old school ways. A brilliant German teacher, Swiss Army captain, fervent anti-communist. And for decades, he had been leading a double life. No one suspected anything. Not his wife and not his daughter Bettina, who had rebelled against her father her entire life. Nor his former favourite student and son-in-law Mario, who had to break away from Gruber, in order to become a left-wing journalist. Nor Bettina’s best friend Karina, who, as a daughter of a custodian working for the Swiss secret service, grew up in close proximity to Gruber’s secret. For he was a member of the secret resistance organisation of the Swiss army, P-26. Now, two decades after the end of the Cold War, Gruber can finally break his silence.

A village in the 14th century. For weeks, rumours have been heard about a terrible disease. And then it reaches the village. The helpless people try to stop the dying through faith, superstition and magic. Nobody knows why so many die and only a few survive. A young girl, Hanna, and her brother, Matthis, bury their grandmother and, although it is forbidden, flee into the forest. On the way, they meet a flagellant procession, and Matthis joins the religious fanatics, while Hanna continues her flight. She finds refuge with an old, silent fisherman, for whom she sells fish on the market. There, she repeatedly sees a child who smiles at her. She soon has the feeling that she must follow this mysterious child ...

From global star to refugee – the incredible story of Joseph Schmidt, one of the most beautiful voices of the 20th century.

His voice filled concert halls, beguiled women, captured an audience of millions in Germany, Europe, and America, where they called him »the small man with the great voice«.
Joseph Schmidt, the son of orthodox Jews from Czernowitz, Ukraine, made an incredible success of himself. What a journey from an unknown Eastern European Shtetl to the famous Carnegie Hall! In 1942, however, fame and talent are worth nothing.
On the run from the Nazis, the famous tenor becomes ill and is just one of thousands of exhausted refugees stuck at the Swiss border. Will he make it to the other side, to safety?

Pit and his sister Lena are bored on holiday in Greece. Their parents are always quarrelling, and there are no other children on the beach. But then Pit and Lena have the good fortune to find the wizard Zervan. He has been hiding away from the world on a tiny island for two hundred and fifty years – or rather, he has been hiding his nose. Because it is so huge and fiery red that it takes Pit and Lena's breath away when they first see it. Zervan is terribly ashamed of this protuberance, which a wicked rival has stuck on his face by a magic spell. Lena feels sorry for him, and has a brilliant idea. That is the start of an adventurous journey on a flying carpet.
A story for children of 8 and upwards, told by Pit and Lena themselves.

A millionaire heiress and a genius painter: a scandalous belle époque love affair. Lukas Hartmann has written a novel about the fate of a woman who breaks with the conventions of her time.

She is intelligent, fascinated by art – and after the death of her father, the »railway king« Alfred Escher, she is the richest woman in Switzerland. She is married to the son of a powerful politician. She is prepared to put all that at risk out of her love for an artist. Who is Lydia? No one knows her better than Luise, the maid who stays by her side through all of life’s twists and turns. And yet Lydia remains a mystery to her.

›Literature Prize of the Canton of Berne‹

English sample translation available.

The new stroke of genius from the Swiss bestselling author Lukas Hartmann is a fast-paced adventure novel and an exciting guessing game for young heroes – for all the children who have ever had dental braces – or who ever wanted them.

Who has not wished they could finally be good at school? Know the capital of Madagascar, how many kilos a hippopotamus weighs and how many grams an earthworm. It is a little odd that shy Tobi suddenly knows all the answers after he gets his dental braces. His classmates, at first full of surprised admiration, soon get suspicious, and Tobi also starts to find the whole thing uncanny.
About the dream of being a hero, and the question of who to trust – other people or ourselves?

Children’s book for ages 10 and above

Sabina has come to Zurich from Russia to be treated by Dr. Carl Gustav Jung at the University Psychiatric Clinic – and becomes his lover. 
Fritz, a carpenter’s son, dreams of building a better society. He pushes Switzerland to the brink of revolution, and later in Russia he saves Lenin’s life.
Sabina and Fritz are courageous, torn, full of contradictions; both ceaseless breakers of new ground. Their paths interweave and mirror one another – even as they slip away into the darkness of European history. 

Eleven-year-old Lars cannot bear living in the children’s home anymore, and he runs away. He wants to find his mother, even though no-one knows where she is. Her last letter, which Lars carries with him in his pocket, was sent from India. But India is far away. Fortunately a strange old man comes to Lars’ aid: his name is Kol and he knows a thing or two about herbs, Indian tea and many other mysterious things, including Lars’ family history... On the search for his mother, the boy winds up in Rome – where Roma children take him to their campsite and the sharp-as-a-tack girl Suni helps him some more – and in the end he really does make it to India, where Lars and his friends will need all their wits and courage in order to outsmart those who want to harm his mother.

In 1923, on account of his exorbitant lifestyle, the musician and artist Louis Soutter is committed to a Swiss mental institution by his family. Only his famous cousin Le Corbusier stands by him. Soutter's pictures are unsettling and ignored by the art world of his time. Le Corbusier, both disconcerted and fascinated, becomes intertangled with this archaic art and the convoluted life paths that have led Soutter to this point.

A moving novel about security and loss, about family bonds which we cannot escape and those of our own making. 11 August, 1999 – total eclipse of the sun. Like thousands of others, a family of five drives to Alsace where the natural spectacle is particularly impressive. Only the youngest son, however, returns from this excursion alive. In the night Eliane Hess, psychologist and single mother, is called to the hospital: eight-year-old Yves, miraculously unscathed, is in shock. He chatters nervously on and on – just not about what really matters. What does he remember of the accident? Did his father smash the car into the tunnel wall on purpose? Piece by jigsaw piece, Eliane is discovering a picture of a family headed towards catastrophe with their eyes open. And it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep a professional distance. Yves's fate horrifies and fascinates Eliane – in the same way the Isenheim Altarpiece has since her youth, of which it is said that a solar eclipse is represented on its first panel. When a tug-of-war over the boy's future begins between his relatives, Eliane reaches an unorthodox decision that will irrevocably change her life and that of her two daughters.