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
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.
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Aus der Reihe „Leben auf Sicht“
320 pages
format:140 x 215
ISBN: 9783701736126
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
A whip-smart essay about how to deal with the future developments in Artificial Intelligence.
Do ChatCPT and generative AI pose a threat to our civilization, or are they an opportunity? The latest algorithms seem to be getting more and more intelligent; they encroach on every aspect of life and are getting increasingly difficult for human beings to grasp. Should we be worried – and are we worrying about the right things? How are we supposed to control machines we cannot understand? If the focus of AI is shifting from intelligence to communication, this raises completely different questions. Ever since algorithms stopped trying to reproduce human intelligence, they have learned to become increasingly competent and efficient interlocutors. Now it is down to us to learn how we can communicate with them.
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Aus der Reihe „Unruhe bewahren“
96 pages
format:140 x 220
ISBN: 9783701736096
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.
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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.
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Aus der Reihe "Unruhe bewahren".
80 pages
format:140 x 220
ISBN: 9783701735730
Release date: 25.09.2023
The new, comprehensive work on the controversial revolutionary!
Fanatic or beacon of hope? Who was this revolutionary, whose ideas shaped not only Russia but the whole world? This biography centres around the career and thinking of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, digging deeper into entrenched prejudices, rearranging seemingly established connections and offering surprising explanations as to how an outsider rose to become the leader of the first socialist state. Drawing on a comprehensive array of original documents, the authors delve into the biography of a man who is considered one of the twentieth century’s most influential figures. The result is a new, multi-layered portrait of Lenin, telling the story of one lone maverick during a time of extraordinary upheaval. Thrilling, informative and captivating!
Book details
Mit zahlreichen Abbildungen.
656 pages
format:140 x 215
ISBN: 9783701733903
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