Wie groß ist eine kleine Welt?

Die Liegestatt ist Anker wie Angelpunkt einer Reise ohne Anfang und ohne Ziel. Ohne sich zu bewegen, nimmt der Text Fahrt auf, kommt von einem Ort zum anderen Ort und sammelt auf seinem Weg Strandgut auf: ein Wasserkocher, das Bohrgeräusch im oberen Stockwerk, ein Tretroller, die zerquetschte Wespe zwischen den Jalousienblättern. Beobachtungen und Erinnerungsbilder aus einer Welt der kleinen Dinge und Sensationen, die zu Wörtern gerinnen. Wörter wiederum, die Beobachtungen und Erinnerungsbilder hervorrufen, aus denen sich eine Welt zusammensetzt: „Noch mehr zu verhandeln, noch mehr Segelboote, die aufzutakeln sind.“ Hans Eichhorn schreibt mit „Die Liegestatt“ das Logbuch einer Expedition im Stillstand, in der Bewegungslosigkeit. Die Seekarte ist der geweißte Plafond über dem Ich, das im Liegen sich und die Welt vermisst. Vermisst, im doppelten Sinne: Denn die Welt ist immer der andere Ort, wo man gerade nicht ist, „und sobald du hineingreifst, zerplatzt das Gebilde“. So steht diese Reise wie jede andere unter dem Motto: „Trag bitte die Altkleider in den Keller und bring die fertig geschleuderte Kochwäsche zum Aufhängen mit!“

For many decades, and until his death in 1989, Thomas Bernhard was the dominating personality in Austrian contemporary literature. His literature is unthinkable without his environment. It is characteristically Austrian, and belongs firmly in the ranks of world literature. He was available and he was public as none of his colleagues were, while he was also considered to be a loner and unapproachable. Everyone talked about him, and yet he was unknown. Erika and Wieland Schmied are two of the few people privileged to experience Thomas Bernhard in private, as a neighbour and friend. Their image of Thomas Bernhard is built on the memories of innumerable encounters and shared experiences, and is documented with unrivalled completeness in hundreds of photographs. The photos, characterful and unsentimental in equal measure, give an insight into Bernhard's environment, the houses and landscapes in which he lived. However, they also convey an impression of the places he wrote about. In short, the authors have created a comprehensive overview of Thomas Bernhard's cosmos, pervaded throughout by his life and work.

Unscramble the code! Alois Brandstetter investigates in the secret world of graffiti. “Korks” says the writing on the wall, over there, and there again, and there and there... Is it a code? A message? Or just a signature? Like a detective, Alois Brandstetter starts to track down meaning and origin of the graffito and adds his philosophic thoughts on manifestations of youth culture, resistance or simply the sweetness of forbidden fruit. But what is the motivation behind these markings? Starting from Josef Kyselak, the Austrian ancestral graffiti writer who even left his mark on the emperor’s desk, Brandstetter describes his personal struggle with the adversities of life. And there are reasons abound for irritation: from compulsory wearing of helmets to higher speed limits, from social injustice to the alleged right on individual freedom, from Günter Grass to... While chasing “Korks”, Brandstetter draws an extensive picture of our society today. The world of graffiti artists, however, remains mysterious... An eloquent, funny and witty companion through the empire of the “unknown vandals”.

If I knew already, you would know. If you knew already, I wouldn’t need to tell you this story. Okay? Okay. So?

Take each day as it comes, avoid stereotypes, be free! This is exactly what a young couple plan to do when they move into an apartment building together. The other residents are involved in their own lives, but seem to be interwoven with each other in a mysterious way. For example, childless paediatrician Conny with her long-distance relationship, inscrutable cellist Jeff, ageing teacher Ms Baumgartner, and then there is Agnes. An intense relationship develops between Agnes and the narrator, a relationship of attraction and repulsion. But suddenly something happens; on New Year's Eve Agnes dies. And nothing is as it was before. The tenants disperse and go their own ways and the young woman starts out on a journey. A search begins for life, identity and “home”. It will continue for many years. Monique Schwitter’s exceptional literary talent blossoms to the full in her first novel. Although the author refuses to provide a psychological analysis, she still manages to penetrate intensely into the strange world of the protagonists. Tragic, funny and unsettling!

O.P. Zier weckt einmal mehr die schlafenden Hunde der Provinz. Die Macht, ihre Marionetten und ein Mord - und alles spricht gegen den Erzähler.

The idyll is elsewhere... Once again, O.P. Zier is not willing to let sleeping dogs lie. A story of the powerful, their puppets and a murder – and all evidence is against the narrator... Barbara Lochner is dead, but who killed her? Everything speaks against Werner Burger, the narrator, except the characters in his book, who line up to admit freely how much each of them would like to kill Barbara Lochner. But when the murder happened, Burger was the only one at the crime scene to confront her with the criminal manipulations of a bureaucracy corrupted by politics. One of her victims is Erwin Lang, an upright man who thought he was about to trace conspiratorial activities but then finds himself in the nuthouse. Or did he just fall prey to his own mind? Against his will, Burger becomes Lang’s advocate in his fight against “the secret system”, and is soon confronted with some crazy small-town dignitaries who aim to reinvent the seasons... This novel takes place on the shady side of an alpine holiday region, in the dreariness between peak season and peak season. Scrutinizing and unrelenting like a detective, O.P. Zier illuminates all corners on which the flashing cameras have not yet shed their light. The result is not only a thrilling story, but also a novel on the pitfalls of story-telling and an author who is always offender and victim at the same time.

Scoglio Pomo, a small and rocky island in the Adriatic Sea, would have remained undiscovered if things had turned out right. They have not, however, and so Scoglio Pomo serves as a glamorous getaway for a group of exiles from a battered Austro-Hungarian Empire. Things go all haywire in this pompous Atlantis of Austrianisms: the decadent, goofy noble men and their insatiable ladies cultivate their spleens and whims, they dance on ghost ships until the magic is lost and they find themselves in the water. But only when the British Fleet by mistake reduces the island to rubble and ruins the Emperor’s Viennese Breakfast, it becomes clear that the golden era of Scoglio Pomo and its quirky inhabitants is over. Scoglio Pomo is an island full of fantastic stories and lovely, cranky originals – monuments of an elegant, yet doomed and tattered world. Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando is a master of the grotesque and one of the great representatives of Austro-Hungarian world literature. This is the first single volume edition of “Scoglio Pomo”, which remained unpublished in Herzmanovsky-Orlando’s lifetime. It is unabridged, unmodified, richly illustrated and the first of four volumes of his most important works.

Live and read music! Our musical heritage needs more than maintenance, it demands a dialogue with our past, our future and ourselves. A passionate manifesto.

Beethoven and Schubert, Verdi and Johann Strauß, Schumann and Dvořak, Brahms and Bruckner – these are only some of the protagonists of this book in which Nicolaus Harnoncourt deals with the most important works of "the century of romanticism“. The conductor also describes his life-long search for the key to imparting music of this era to the audiences of today, a task that is often being hindered by traditions or changing fashions in performing. In his unrivalled style, with passion and a strong conviction, Nicolaus Harnoncourt outlines how we must never refrain from reading our musical heritage from scratch. Moreover, he shares gloomy memories of his youth under the Nazi regime and fascinating insights into the musical life of the Vienna of his era. All of his statements, be they on music, their cultural significance or his own identity as an interpreter of music, reflect his approach to life itself: that music is not to be regarded as a mere heritage of the past, but also, and particularly, as a living reminder of our right to a humane future.

Welcome to the vale of tears. A referee explains his view on the world before going out on the field to blow the whistle in the finals. His finals.

The great satirist Thomas Brussig slips into the role of a referee and reflects on life. How does it feel to get booed by 80,000 people? How does it feel to be surrounded by liars, dodgers and cheaters who look innocent in one second and suffer in the next, just as tactics require it in the 90 minutes of a game? How does it feel to catch attention by making mistakes only (for only wrong decisions spur discussions)? The tragedy of the impartial is that he has to stay neutral in a world where passion is contagious, and remain an amateur among highly paid professionals. And why exactly are referees expected to be just, when nobody believes in justice anyway? This book by Thomas Brussig is the first of a new series by Residenz Verlag: A Litany.

René Templ, a young man and writer, finds a mentor, his intellectual paternity, in Karl Senegger. At the same time, however, he shirks his duties towards his wife and his child - as soon as he feels needed as a father, he shrinks to the size of his son. Karl Senegger, on his part, failed as a father; his son Viktor jumps to death. Was it an irrational act, the final drop of attraction between opposite poles? Or a desperate attempt to stand up against the one you owe your life? Karl Senegger shirks his responsibilities. The father who lost his son finally publishes his child’s literary legacy. Four interwoven stories form this novel, all connected through their subjects, characters and motives. Clemens J. Setz illustrates how sons make their fathers grow, and fathers their sons – and how they break in the presence of each other. Sensitive and tender, joyously playful, but also with confidence and ease – this is a new voice, young and so diversified, a fascinating find. Rewarded with the Ernst-Willner-Preis 2008 at the Bachmann-Wettbewerb and nominated for the aspekte literature award 2007. A haunting novel on fathers who remain sons, and sons who become fathers. An impressive literary debut.

Fatal happiness. The story of two women who are driven into a desperate and fatally suffocating embrace by society.

For the people of a remote village in the foothills of the Austrian Alps, Wilma is a spawn of hell, a monster, and surely not one of them: she is a retarded, corpulent and close-lipped child - and a child without parents. Her helplessness, however, engages the love and sympathy of Agnes, a widowed and childless woman, who both embraces and clings to her fosterling. In constant anxiety for Wilma, she tries to protect their little happiness against the locals, youth welfare officials and all external threats. But their happiness is based on dependence, and in a narrow, secluded world, this can prove lethal... In this book, Evelyn Grill demonstrates once more why her recent novels "Vanitas" and "Der Sammler" [The Collector] made her one of the most provocative voices of contemporary German-speaking literature. She writes uncompromisingly succinct, without sentimentality or shallow morality, and she is never afraid to explore the abysmal depths of the human soul. Let’s worship this author! ANTON THUSWALDNER, SALZBURGER NACHRICHTEN Grill loves to search for strange hobbies and weird passions. Great! DER SPIEGEL