1966, the year the world said farewell to the past and hello to the future. The fact that Schäfer is an author who not only writes literature, but also writes about pop music and literature, is pure luck for this genre. [Franz Dobler, taz]

The opening of the Psychedelic Shop on Haight & Ashbury on January 3, 1966 is not only the beginning of an era in pop culture. Ken Kasey and the Merry Pranksters are touring through the US with their public LSD Happenings. Even the Beatles are on acid and they're more famous than Jesus. And more controversial, too. In London's UFO club, Pink Floyd begin their ascent to the stars, just like Captain Kirk, Spock, and Bones. The cold war moves to outer space and students start moving to the streets. And a white whale is sighted in the Rhine… Frank Schäfer paints a colorful collage of the year when postwar blandness was replaced by psychedelic pink paisley.

On the difficulty of finding the creative You. An inspiring analysis. Ullrich's style is clear; he writes elegant, poignant, and precise texts, without the excessive emphasis typically found in this genre. [Christian Demand, BAYRISCHER RUNDFUNK]

Creativity has never been as topical as it is today. It is no longer the privilege of few, but is rather considered a basic human skill. If you want to be up to date, you better choose something like poetry or expressive dance, painting or spinning the decks. The pressure to be creative overwhelms a lot of people and produces more stress than release. As a result, many seek new ways to be creative and inspiration is in high demand. Consumer products advertise with mentally stimulating qualities, while the wellness industry thrives on the promise of uncovering hidden creativity deep within. And art is no longer expected to produce great masterpieces, but is rather called upon to create creative atmospheres. Creativity as a problem – Wolfgang Ullrich's unexpected ideas shed new light on the subject.

An infallible guide through our most painful, but necessary memories Martin Pollack is one of the leading authors in the field of East European history. His work is a continuous effort against forgetting the victims of the 20th century. [Georg Renöckel, NZZ]

"Topografie der Erinnerung" is a collection of the brilliant essayist's most striking speeches and articles. They deal with topics as diverse as the massacre of Reichnitz in the last weeks of the war; so-called "Reibepartien" (scrub groups) where Jews were humiliated and forced to scrub the street; the myth of Galicia; Poland and Ukraine's postwar history; or Pollack's own family's entanglement with the Nazis. His investigations are always astute and critical, they are always aimed at keeping memory alive and against false claims of innocence. Time and again he asks the key question of memory politics: How can and must we deal with these memories today?

A remarkably modern author and her sophisticated work Rediscovering Ebner-Eschenbach is more than worth it, in both a feminist and literary sense… [Elfriede Hammerl, Profil]

Austria's most famous female author of the 19th century was underestimated as a "poet of kindness & grace", yet she was so much more: Poetic realist, playwright, aphorist, proponent of women's rights, fighter of anti-Semitism, officer's wife, trained watchmaker, animal friend, and avid horseback rider. In the first German biography since 1920, Daniela Strigl traces Ebner-Eschenbachs life from her birth in Zdislavice castle to her late fame as an author. The multi-faceted author was always torn between her aristocratic background and her socialist opinions, between ethics and irony, ambition and humility, social obligations and her passion for writing. Maria von Ebner-Eschenbach unwaveringly held on to her goals, despite resistance from her family and bad reviews from theater critics. "If there is a belief that can move mountains, then it is the belief in one's own strength."

Breathtakingly weird: Barbi Marković's urban novel is an ode to pessimism and three truly contemporary superheroines

Every Saturday, three superheroines meet in a run-down café called Sette Fontane. There is Mascha, the brave supportive one, Direktorka, the inexperienced one ready for adventure, and Marija's granddaughter who has a flexible conscience and revenge in her veins. The three have dark, chaotic powers and want to bring justice to Vienna's suburbs as they plan a futile uprising of the middle class. "Lightening of Fate" and "Annihilation" are the weapons that grandma Marija already successfully used to destabilize an entire country. After failed appearances and painful years of learning in Berlin, Belgrade, Sarajevo and other cities, our three superheroines ultimately find triumph in the darkest of all happy ends.

Martin Lechner, a master of words, pulls out all the stops with his intriguing new story collection. Hurrah, they still exist! Mature literary debuts that shine with sophisticated language and a strong and convincing composition. (…) Sometimes expressionist prose full of stark contrasts where every feeling materializes, sometimes absurd theater of desperation, and then suddenly juicy and vibrant crime comedy in the style of German Comedian Helge Schneider… [Oliver Jungen, FAZ]

Lechner's stories collide like waves. They pass on words, images, or moods, flow into one another and yet, remain self-contained. They are uncanny and high-spirited and tell us about desperate lakes and knees to fall in love with. They are about films we vaguely remember and brightly lit cities, silently bursting bubbles of blood and summers long brushed aside. They are all at home in a language where something new and unexpected awaits behind each turn. Lechner achieves this feat with humor, the absurd and sentences that give us a touch of the ungraspable.

Susanne Scholl tells a touching and humorous story of waiting and dreaming and of moments of truth that happen when we least expect them.

Lilly spends seven summers with her Italian friends on Sardinia, savoring the uncomplicated, delightful air of an endless vacation – and time spent with Gianni, who is the opposite of a Latin lover, but impossible to forget. Seven winters bring Lilly back to Vienna and the unpleasant routine of her daily life: Her ex-husband has a new, young girlfriend, her best friend dies of cancer, and her father comes out of the closet and writes a tell-all book about it. And so Lilly escapes into a fantasy world, dreaming of life with Gianni, of having a child. But the last summer forces her to finally bring her wishes and reality face to face.

A fascinating dialogue about living and writing

To his interviewer, writer and ethnologist Hans-Jürgen Heinrichs, Gerhard Roth is not only the last great epic novelist, daring to write cycles such as “Die Archive des Schweigens” and “Orkus”, he is also one of the greatest masters of language, transgressing the boundaries between literature and history. In this in-depth, lively dialogue the two men fathom Roth’s great novels and address personal subjects such as the origins of writing, the significance of memory and indeed death. The reader embarks on the “Journey into the Unspeakable” Roth takes in his writing.

Alphabet soup is a celebration of literary and culinary diversity, to be devoured on the page and the plate!

The successful intercultural theatre project “Wiener Wortstaetten” is celebrating its tenth birthday. Since 2005 it has hosted theatrical productions by writers from various countries speaking various languages and reflecting the diversity of the capital Vienna: Turkey, Russia, Iran, Bulgaria and states from the former Yugoslavia have all been represented. As well as enriching German-language literature with their stories, writing and performing for the ”Wiener Wortstaetten”, each writer also cooked unique soups, mixing ingredients from their old and new homes. Short stories and recipes by Ibrahim Amir, Susanne Ayoub, Ana Bilic, Seher Cakir, Yasmin Hafedh, Michal Hvorecky, Jérôme Junod, Ursula Knoll, Rhea, Krcmárová, Valerie Melichar, Barbi Markovic, Azar Mortazavi, Goran Novakovic, Dominic Oley, Ewald Palmetshofer, Thomas Perle, Semir Plivac, Julya Rabinowich, Andreas Sauter, Gerhild Steinbuch, Marianne Strauhs, Bernhard Studlar, Robert Woelfl

Thomas Bernhard – A Biography

Thomas Bernhard was all that and more, as this comprehensive biography shows. The acknowledged expert Manfred Mittermayer has drawn together Bernhard’s life and work into one great story, reaching from his ‘origin complex’ – his grandfather Johannes Freumbichler’s family – to his premature death following years of illness. Mittermayer creates a nuanced picture of Bernhard’s multi-layered public image and the various phases of his private life, placing his most significant works of prose and theatre in relation to a life story inseparably bound to post-war history. “I cannot deny that I’ve always led two existences: one which comes close to the truth, which I do have the right to describe as reality, and another which I have played out. Over time, the two together have formed the existence which keeps me alive.” Thomas Bernhard, Der Keller (The Cellar – part II of his autobiography)