Based on true events, this is a story of intelligent resistance and civic courage in times of inhumanity, then and now.

Award-winning author Erich Hackl draws a vivid picture of Second World War Vienna – and of the fate of people leaving the city, to start new lives in Iran, Australia, China and other places.

How the taciturn Vienna craftsman and passionate mountaineer Reinhold Duschka came to save two Jewish lives during the Nazi reign of terror. How he managed to hide Regina Steinig and her daughter Lucia in his workshop over four years. How the three of them, tied by an invisible rope, survived thanks to good fortune and mutual trust. What happened afterwards. This meticulously researched story develops an incredible undertow, while affecting the reader deeply.

Featured in New Books in German.

Charlie is fifteen years old and misses her father, especially since her mother’s new boyfriend came onto the scene. And as if that weren’t enough, her best friend has just kissed the boy she has a crush on. For a while now, it feels like there’s been a glass wall between Charlie and the world. Then, Pommes shows up, his real name is Kornelius — and he turns that glass wall into a car window that can be rolled down, so that Charlie can finally stretch her hand up toward the sky again.

They were best friends starting their stage careers together — until things fell apart. Sonja, nicknamed Sun, was betrayed by Jana von Mond. Years later, Jana — now a comedy star — shows up at Sun’s funeral parlour and asks her to host the memorial service for her late partner. Old wounds reopen, new ones are inflicted. Sun and Moon are unable to break free from their orbit; they shine on, each in their own way, sometimes cold, sometimes warm.

The far north of Iceland, around the turn of the nineteenth century. With his rope ferry, Jón Magnússon Ósmann transports people, animals and wares across the waters of the Skagafjord. He’s a fisherman and a seal hunter who sees ghosts and elves; a friend of all mankind who cares for and shelters those in need; and he’s also a God-fearing drinker and poet. Larger-than-life, strong and companionable, and yet so tormented by his own fate that the floods he has sailed for over forty years begin to lure him in. Bursting with life, this is an almost unbelievable story based on a real life.

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.

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.

»The appointment is on the 18th of February at four! Make a note!« says Anja’s mother, before continuing to slurp down her wonton soup. She’s referring to neither a hairdresser or dentist appointment, but her own demise. Anja, in her late thirties, a former actress and now barkeeper, is thrown off her already-shaky life path by this announcement, even though her relationship with her strong-willed mother has always been complicated. She continually struggles to keep her distance, to lead her own life, have her own loves. What is expected of her now, and what does she expect of herself? And what will happen to her mother’s dog?

»In the hands of great authors, characters are like real people, merely realer«, Donna Leon once said. Perhaps this is why her life is so rich in characters and people accompanying her, both real and fictional.

Backstage presents a colorful troupe: the rock genius Frank Zappa, Veniceʼs most famous diamond dealer, a courageous sex worker and womenʼs rights activist, a clever composer, tragic heroes and admired colleagues. In the hands of Donna Leon, these encounters turn into sparkling jewels. A treasure trove of delightful discoveries.

A troop of Red Army soldiers disappears without a trace, in the heart of Kyiv, while visiting a banya, a traditional Ukrainian bathhouse. When Samson discovers fragments of bone in the banya’s furnace, he uncovers a sinister conspiracy. In this third volume of the series about kindhearted Samson and quickwitted Nadezhda, the Ukrainian master of absurd storytelling vividly depicts a Kyiv filled with political turbulence and eccentric characters — and draws playful parallels with the present day.

When you look around at the world, it’s almost enough to silence any laughter. But in the end, even evil can only be borne with humour; and these sometimes ironic, sometimes misanthropic, yet always brilliantly absurd drawings show us the perspectives of two exceptional artists.

London, 1951. Nanette Blitz and John Konig meet at a party. She is the only survivor in her family, and deeply traumatised. He is also an orphan, and already has a ticket for the crossing to Brazil. Their encounter is a moment of happiness and intimacy — something neither of them expected to feel again. They write to one another for almost two years before Nanette decides to follow John to São Paulo. This is a book about rediscovered hope and joy for life, and an extraordinary love.

One morning, a man arrives dead in the chairlift on Monte Solaro. Someone must have shot at him from the sun-scorched Macchia below. The first clue leads to an olive grove; one that conceals an old secret. While the Naples criminal investigation department send a specialised search team, the island police officers Enrico Rizzi und Antonia Cirillo stumble across extravagant ideas regarding valuable olive oil in this, their latest case – and across a tree with a variety of olive that grows only on Capri. One for which some people would kill.

It’s 1983. Daniel is about to have his Confirmation, and is dreaming of a blue velvet jacket and grey flannel trousers – but then he overhears his parents talking, and it dawns on him that he won’t be getting them. The Hormanns are broke, and have no idea how to make ends meet for their family of six. As imaginative as the parents are, money management isnʼt their strong point. What they are great at, though, is keeping up appearances, even when the bailiff is outside the door.

Rosa, a little bird, lives with her parents in a tree — until the day the tree is cut down. As they search for a new home, they experience frightening and emboldening things, and Rosa learns that you sometimes have to let go of something in order to find happiness.

Benny discovers the world of plants, where everything grows and shoots and sprouts. What does a bean turn into? And an orange pip? And what is a pistill, anyway? A book that invites you to playfully discover nature, and to be curious.