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.
Book details
216 pages
format:125 x 205
ISBN: 9783701717910
Release date: 23.09.2024
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.
Book details
256 pages
format:125 x 205
ISBN: 9783701717897
Release date: 12.08.2024
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.
Book details
160 pages
format:125 x 205
ISBN: 9783701717859
Release date: 25.03.2024
Vladimir Vertlib once again proves himself to be a master storyteller: Lina's road trip through the Soviet Union is a cornucopia of incredible stories
"The Journey Home" is the author's touching homage to his mother, a fierce woman with an indestructible sense of humor, and at the same time a merciless satire on the absurdity of the Soviet dictatorship in the 1950s: Lina, a young student from Leningrad, modeled on the author's mother, is doing her compulsory labor service in distant Kazakhstan in the summer when she receives a message from home. "Father seriously ill! Come quickly!" With tenacity, desperation and changing companions, Lina sets off on her journey through the Soviet empire, which is ruled by absurd regulations and arbitrary police violence. Will she make it home in time to see her father alive?
Book details
352 pages
format:125 x 205
ISBN: 9783701717835
Release date: 12.02.2024
Tara C. Meister sensitively tells a contemporary story about alternative life plans and dreams, about failure and new life.
The unpredictable but charismatic Johanna is a director in a small theatre collective. She has a close, perhaps too close, friendship with Caro, who works as a biochemist in a laboratory. When Johanna becomes unintentionally pregnant, Caro offers to raise the child together - a courageous alternative to traditional family patterns? Tara C. Meister's exciting debut novel confronts dreams with their validity in reality. She describes moments of intimacy and closeness, but also conflicts and assaults, with a light touch and a clear view. But Johanna and Caro are determined to live out their courageous decision - and to assert themselves in a world in which utopias are not intended...
Book details
256 pages
format:125 x 215
ISBN: 9783701717842
Release date: 12.02.2024
In Minihorror, ordinary nightmares come true – humorous, surreally imaginative and always aware of the fragility of our existence.
In Minihorror, Barbi Marković tells the story of Mini and Miki and their everyday adventures in the city. Mini and Miki aren’t from around here, but they do their best to fit in and do everything right. Despite – or rather because – of this, they are constantly pursued by dangers and monsters, by catastrophes and troubles. This is a book about the nightmares of the middle class, great and small, about the horror of the perfect family breakfast, about workplace bullying and holiday disasters, about the yawning, ever-present emptiness of everyday life. In Minihorror, Barbi Marković has created a perfidious, compassionate monument to the agents of fear in our society – to read it is to feel at once caught-out and understood.
Book details
4. Auflage April 2024
192 pages
format:140 x 215
ISBN: 9783701717750
Release date: 06.10.2023
A delight for all fans: Alois Brandstetter’s treasure trove of anecdotes is well-nigh inexhaustible!
In his 'Journey through Life', Alois Brandstetter created a tongue-in-cheek summary of his CV, and here the playful storytelling continues. On one of his walks, his eye is caught by an inscription: ‘Rubicon’, it says, and to his great astonishment, the name refers to a brutal-looking pickup jeep. Brandstetter begins to reminisce about cars and the trips he has taken in his life, about accidents and incidents, about paths, destinations, and the charm of meandering aimlessly through the world of things and of words. Observations about language alternate with anecdotes, memories with literary allusions, and ultimately, while we certainly don’t end up crossing the Rubicon, we do cross the finish line of a thoroughly enjoyable excursion with an incomparably hilarious author.
Book details
208 pages
format:125 x 205
ISBN: 9783701717781
Release date: 25.09.2023
A brilliant examination of a multi-faceted concept: ‘disturbance’.
In this essay, Kinsky explores the human and natural influences on our environment that bring about fundamental changes. But what exactly characterises a disturbance, and how can we approach this negatively-charged word in a way that opens up unexpected avenues of thought? Esther Kinsky centres this essay around the concept of ‘disturbed land’. The term refers to a piece of land that is gradually being returned to a state of nature, generally after a period of very intensive use and appropriation by human beings. Drawing on various examples, Kinsky offers a powerful analysis of the tension between nature and culture, exploitation and reconquest, as well as historical pollution as a far-reaching field of disruption. Her perspective on the world leads to surprising and poetic insights.
Book details
Aus der Reihe "Unruhe bewahren".
80 pages
format:140 x 220
ISBN: 9783701735730
Release date: 25.09.2023
Radically feminist and humorous, Anna Katharina Laggner's notes of her twin pregnancy is a revelation.
A doctor gives the author some surprising news: she is creating life. She has one son already, and now she’s pregnant again. With twins. After much discussion, she decides against termination. She also discovers that being pregnant with twins seems to make her public property: doctors and relatives, complete strangers and friends, her yoga teacher and work colleagues – everybody wants to judge, offer advice, and touch her growing belly. Radically subjective and unshakeably good-humoured, Anna Katharina Laggner explores the mystery of being a trinity: she writes about her life with and among ‘Strangelings’, about erotic dry spells and unreasonable social demands, about her fears, and about the tremendous joy that remains a constant presence.
Book details
208 pages
format:125 x 205
ISBN: 9783701717774
Release date: 04.09.2023