Living for science, music and peace

The great physicist Victor Weisskopf (1908–2002) studied under Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger in Leipzig and Berlin. He was forced to leave his native Austria before the Nazi occupation on account of his Jewish heritage. He subsequently joined the team of scientists on the Manhattan Project in the USA, where he was involved in the development of the atom bomb. By the time he fully realized the consequences of his work, however, it was already too late. From then on, he became a vocal opponent of nuclear weapons. A belated realization in the moral dilemma of atomic physics, or a logical conclusion for the man who later became a professor at MIT and the director of CERN? An enthralling, well-founded biography of this physicist and passionate pianist.

Death, wood and eternal life

Few things are as diverse as deadwood. So much more than the remnants of old trees on the forest floor, it comes in an array of forms, providing habitats for insects and other organisms. Dead roots under the water, wooden coffins buried beneath the ground in urban spaces – this close interplay of decay and new life is all around us. If we look closely, we can see how the once-extinct beaver is now paving the way for other species, like the endangered saproxylic beetle. Deadwood also teaches us to have a positive outlook for our coexistence with local biodiversity, showing that there have already been a number of improvements in the past hundred years. An exciting journey through the secret world of insects, fungi and other creatures that live in the deadwood in our forests, parks and gardens.

A legendary linguistic legacy – in a new, extended edition complete with foreword and new word-pictures to celebrate what would have been Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s 95th birthday.

One of the keys to Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s artistry was his ingenious talent for conveying musical content in verbal images. Author and choral singer Sabine M. Gruber – both a participant and an observer – kept a record of Harnoncourt’s rehearsal instructions in her notes for 30 years. Combining original quotes with essays, she sheds light on the personality of the man and artist, while exploring the essence of his musical and artistic process. A book full of humour, musical truth and essential wisdom.

Clemens Berger paints a wildly comical picture of our society in this touching tale of solidarity, struggle for survival and motherly love.

Babies need milk – from the breast or the bottle. This is where Clarissa begins with the “House of Liquid Gold”: women like Maya, a single mother who was previously making a living from casual jobs, express their surplus milk in a comfortable environment and take a share in the profits. Things are going well until the biggest manufacturer can no longer supply families with formula; then breast milk becomes a matter of life and death. When Maya takes the side of the desperate women and their hungry babies, she becomes a social media icon. Clemens Berger’s fast-paced satyr takes us on the rollercoaster of emotions Maya experiences on social media: she is celebrated, suffers backlash and receives offers of millions of euros, not to mention death threats – and she has to find her own way.

The ultimate questions in one book

Should we follow those who seek the truth, or those who say they have found it? Sven Michaelsen’s answer is clear: the key to whether we consider our lives successful or misspent is in asking ourselves and our neighbours the right questions. Opinions and claims aren’t what bring insights; the curvy question mark is what matters. Whether love or happiness, loneliness or shame, desire or fidelity: the art of living means adopting a different approach to the fraught space between contradictory answers, perceiving it as poetry of thought and the basis for smart choices. After 777 questions, we understand: unless we are willing to face ourselves, we will not find anyone else, either.

With a subtly humorous touch, Jana Volkmann tells a story of animals, humans and egalitarian forms of coexistence that are as self-evident as they are revolutionary.

Two women are on their way home in central Vienna one summer’s night when they happen upon a horse without a rider in a small alley. The slightly neglected animal trots along behind them until they reach their house in the suburbs, where it takes up residence in the garden. From this point on, the two women look after the latest addition to the household. What seems like a fairytale fantasy at first grows into an extraordinary novel about the coexistence between animals and humans, about animal rights and exploitation, self-determination and its limits. With elegance and wit, Jana Volkmann tells a highly topical story in which chicken factories are stormed and pigs gallop across the high street – a story in which every individual must decide for themselves how we, collectively, want to live in the future.

This is a novel of a young generation that wants to turn the united Europe into its playing field, only to find itself becoming a pawn in questionable political strategies.

Upon graduating, Hanna Fürst secures a highly competitive internship at the European External Office and is determined to make the most of the opportunity. Along with NGO activists Lej and Jakov, she is assigned to the “Future Working Group”, tasked with promoting the peaceful rapprochement of two warring neighbouring states on the margins of Europe. Amid the rapid pace of work, however, Hanna loses herself in the grey area between intrigue and networks. She succumbs to her fascination for the charismatic Lej, who seems to be the only one with any real plan. By refusing to get caught up in a war that has been happening since before they were born, the working group make an enemy not only of their institution but also the two nation states.

The new paradigm is that of regenerability.

We live in an age where we find ourselves confronted with seemingly insoluble problems, many of them stemming from humanity’s increasing alienation from nature and from ourselves. We cannot hold back this development with sustainability, factual knowledge and technological innovation alone. We are on the verge of a paradigm shift: regenerability. It is nature’s own processes and principles – from the tiniest cells to the biggest ecosystems – that serve as a model here. They are a testament to billions of years of evolution towards self-organised, resilient systems. Human beings, too, are a part of this process. Grassberger shows how a fundamental shift in values can regenerate human health, society and economics, allowing them to thrive long-term.

With painful candour, humour and tenderness tells Moritz Franz Beichl the story of two unequal brothers and his search for alternative images of masculinity.

In Moritz Franz Beichl's novel, two men meet who have nothing in common - except one essential thing: their father. Because everything distinguishes the narrator from his brother Konrad, the lawyer and family man who lives in a nice house - and perpetuates a conventional image of masculinity. More attractive, more modern, but with all the normative violence that has always been there. But now the father has died, the two brothers have to organise the funeral together - and for the first time the narrator has something to offer his older brother: a self-determined life as a ballet dancer, as a gay man, as a stubborn single man. The old conflicts break out, but reconciliation may also be possible without fully understanding each other's lives.

Biologist Martin Reich guides us through the new world of fermentation laboratories and a host of new possibilities.

If we make the switch from agriculture to brewing kettles, we could drastically reduce the catastrophic impact of our diet on the environment and the climate. The thousands-of-years-old tradition of fermentation is having something of a renaissance thanks to advances in biotechnology. Now, with bioreactors, scientists are looking to produce real cheese without cows, real eggs without hens, and much more. The vision: much more food on much less land. But how are these new products made? What do they mean for us, and what will become of agriculture? Are we even ready for a fermentation revolution? To find the answers to these questions, Martin Reich has set out on a journey through laboratories, breweries and the intellectual world of researchers, critics and dreamers.