This book will knock you off your feet with its humor, quick pace, intelligence and loads of emotion.

“So, no sex, no god, no dreams” – otherwise Lu will talk about anything. She tells her parents that she’s going to kickboxing camp for two weeks. Actually, she has decided to take some time off and rents a room in a Bed and Breakfast called “Zur schönen Gegenwart” (the beautiful now). Lu is 16 and she doesn’t have a story, not a real one, not yet. But she can talk like others breathe. In the B’n’B she meets Tulpe Valentin, an old author who has written eight novels, but finished the last one years ago. She thinks she has left her life behind along with her writing. The time off that Valentin and her ill B’n’B neighbor are taking is more like waiting for the right moment to give up. “A punch hurts less if you see it coming.” But then Lu comes along and starts talking and Valentin listens and writes it all down – it’s her last novel, because she sees life right in front of her. It’s not her own, but another life is continuing.

A biography on the occasion of the composer’s 200th birthday.

Born in the year of the “Great Comet”, the path of this child prodigy from Raidling, Burgenland first led to Vienna and later Paris, the Mecca of the musical world at the time. There, Franz Liszt became highly successful as a piano virtuoso and led the life of a sought-after bohemian. Always searching for success as a composer, Liszt’s torn inner state marked his artistic development as much as his love affairs. After concert tours through all of Europe, he was appointed director of Weimar’s court orchestra, where he helped Richard Wagner’s opus achieve a breakthrough. Jan Jiracek von Arnim embarks on a fascinating journey exploring the composer’s life. He follows Liszt’s years on the road as a virtuoso, visionary, musical pioneer, superstar and soul-searcher as he takes a closer look at the person and musician. The result is this magnificent portrait of an exceptional artist.

The “War against Terror” and its wrong objectives

The world changed within a few hours. As the ORF’s correspondant in Washington D.C., Peter Fritz experienced how a nation at the peak of global power was humiliated to the core on September 11, 2001. The USA reacted with politics of fear, which in turn have affected the entire world. What at first seemed like successful campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq soon turned out to cost the price of human rights. Martial law had replaced the constitutional rule of law. Caught up in an obsession with security, the USA lost both their economic dominance and their moral integrity. In the global race for intellectual influence and cultural dominance they are now stuck in a precarious situation. Can the USA prevent their downfall as a global super power? In his new book, Peter Fritz takes stock of the situation ten years after the terror attacks in New York and reaches the conclusion that the “War Against Terror” has been following the wrong objectives.

This book includes everything about Mozart – even things that nobody knew.

You think you know Mozart? Think again! You will be surprised to find out how little you knew about someone so well known: Did Mozart use a special ruler to draw the lines of is sheet music? What was the name of his riding horse and how much did it cost? What type of corkscrew did he use and what happened to his lottery tickets? What cookbook was used for his meals? What was his favorite soap? And what did his wife’s soap smell like? In more than 300 interesting and amusing entries this book offers insight into Mozart’s life and work, living conditions and traveling habits. The perfect gift for anyone who knows Mozart and all those who want to learn more about him!

“Unruly, witty and uncompromising.” FAZ

During the Roaring Twenties she was the queen of New York. Her sharp tongue and biting humor were legendary. She quarreled with Ernest Hemingway, slept with F. Scott Fitzgerald and got drunk with Truman Capote. Dorothy Parker wrote for “Vogue”, “Vanity Fair” and “The New Yorker” and was a member of the legendary Algonquin Round Table, where the city’s cultural crème-de-la-crème came together. Her sarcastic verses and poignant short stories are revealed as tales of broken dreams and waiting for the phone to ring. She became a successful screenwriter in Hollywood, but her career was cut short when she was put on Senator McCarthy’s blacklist because of her political involvement against fascism and racism. Michaela Karl is the first to present a German biography of Dorothy Parker. She portrays her unconventional life and, behind the cynical façade, discovers a sensitive woman on the quest to finding happiness.

How close can you get to someone you barely know – even if he is your own father? A man who is almost the same as everyone else.

Karl H. was neither German, nor Austrian nor Yugoslavian. And yet he was all of three in his lifetime, thanks to historical coincidences. His story begins between the Wars, in the former Crown Land Styria, in the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia, today’s Slovenia. From there, his path led to Kaprun, Trieste, Sarajevo, where after years serving in the army as a interpreter for partisan interrogations he returned to Salzburg. Karl H. was not a Nazi, but he also wasn’t a regime critic. So what was he? A man stumbling through the 20th century. A father who remained a mystery to his son. With immense intensity Albert Holler traces the life of a person he was closely familiar with, yet who always remained a stranger. This novel is an attempt to understand and to come as close to a person as literature can.

Ivan, an innocent anarchist like all children, measures up a world which is in moral ruins. He becomes the leader of a children’s revolt, spreading violence in the city and casting it into an apocalyptic state. the hell of a war is revealed on playgrounds and in courtyards. There are no prisoners in this hell engulfing an entire city. Outrageous things happen. In the end the children have become weary – not only of killing, but also of living. Michaela Falkner uses shreds of our everyday reality to create a scenario that slowly, but steadily boils into a feverish monstrous nightmare that may have already come true. Her language is hard and poetic, her attitude unsparing and radical.

An entertaining pilgrimage report of a different sort

Mixed-breed Pecorino, who has achieved international fame as a photo model, follows the Path of Saint Francis, the patron saint of animals, to Assisi. equipped with the credential and lots of snacks, his pilgrimage begins at the beach in Rimini. Twelve adventurous days take him through magnificent landscapes, across mountains and valleys. Along the 300 km path crossing the Apennines Pecorino has a chance to contemplate his professional career and revisit private memories, accidents and mishaps. He thinks about his relationship to humans and comes to surprising conclusions. But do dogs go to heaven? Pecorino the four-pawed pilgrim is an amusing and humorous travel companion on the path to Assisi.

A biography written in places honoring the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death.

Life first led Gustav Mahler from Bohemia to Vienna, where he would become one of the most famous composers and conductors of his time. Further stations were Ljubljana, Olomouc, Kassel, Prague, Budapest, Leipzig and Hamburg. Both his working and private life allowed him to travel to Scandinavia, Finland, Germany, the countries of the Danube Monarchy, Russia, Italy, Great Britain and the USA. Based on photographs, sketches, letters, memories and registration documents, the authors were the first to fully reconstruct all the places that marked the life of the musician. This included retracing all of Mahler’s home addresses, all music institutions he played at as well as the places he visited – with friends and family, to compose and be alone. The topography at hand uses texts and images to shed new light on Mahler’s life between the “Gründerzeit” era (Founding Years) and Modernism, in both the Old and New World.

It’s finally here! The sequel to the successful novel “At the postman’s expense”

The three postmen Ürdinger, Blumauer and Deuth have all retired. Every week they get together at the local pub, reminisce about the old working days and comment on changes in today’s world. They speak about everything and everyone, including the national mail’s partners. The scope of their conversations extends to subjects such as crime (sometimes), “feminism” (more frequently), folklore (every now and then) and zoology. After all, there’s lots to be discussed: whether it’s the postmistress’ refusal to deliver mail to the local nudist camp or the two men who robbed the post office disguised in burqas… The mental capers sparked by these discussions exceed the imaginable. The Austrian Post’s mascot fox says speaks as he pleases. Alois Brandstetter is still an unrivaled master of words, presenting us with a whirlwind of subjects and anecdotes.