Lois is a nurse, undoubtedly a profession with a reasonable amount of decency. He truly knows how it feels to be entrusted to people who only want the best for you: a childhood in an orphanage, over the hills and far away, is also far away from a fairy tale. As an adult, the world still does not feel like home to him, and neither does Vienna: hairy monsters stroll along Mariahilferstraße, ants are building a mega city under ground, and the city is sitting above it like a sleeping giant. His neighbour Kristina, on her part, has ambitions: private ones that include Lois, professional ones that include pathology. One day, Lois discovers migratory locusts on his windowsill, tiny and fragile monsters that the wind had taken far, far away. Just like Lois himself. Yet flying does not make you an angel, let alone Superman… In his second novel, Michael Stavaric portraits another peculiar character facing an eerie world, and, to quote critics of his debut novel stillborn, he does it “brilliantly”, “masterly”, “linguistically overwhelming”.

Elisa has one passion: empty apartments. The fact that she is a real estate agent presents only a limited accommodation to her infatuation, as during the day she is always busy finding people that fill up her apartments. But at night she is in her element, behind the doors that shut life out: there she feels safe. Until one apartment after the other is afflicted by an arsonist and goes up in flames. Georg, the investigating officer, is in the dark. And what is even worse, he soon catches fire himself, and is burning with love for Elisa. To make matters worse unsolved cases of murder from her childhood suddenly emerge together with Georg. Why can’t she remember anything? Would her mother know more? All sorts of things happen, and yet Elisa can’t get rid of the notion that actually nothing is happening at all. Her daily routine is the only thing that keeps her going – all too often too fast – and there is always the fear that one day she might stop breathing because she could simply have forgotten… Michael Stavarič writes two whodunits in one – and more than that: intriguingly he tells of an irresistible woman. His language is rhythmical, poetic and vibrant. Elisa, the monster, the saint. A woman whom one wishes in the end: live, damn it. Breathe!

This is the story of Walter, the son of an influential architect. He wants to become an actor – or is that what his father wants? Walter is given a chance when Valerie, an exhausted psychiatrist, askes him to play the parts of fictitious patients’ roles in group therapy sessions. Only he is too much absorbed in his part. This is the story of Alexander. He is a nurse, a young man of spreading imagination, which developed in the shadows of his lonely childhood. Alexander quits his job and tries to get rid of his girlfriend in order to be with Valerie. But one day she is found being beaten up brutally… After his debut “Sons and Planets”, for which he received nothing but approval from the critics, Clemens J. Setz presents a piece of work which exceeds all expectations: breathtakingly vigorous, colourful, of powerful expressions and yet gentle.

Maria has time to spare. So she often spends it sitting on a bench on the church square, watching people come and go, people with big goals on their minds but little time on their hands. Maria, an unemployed fabric saleswoman, knows about fabrics, knows what goes well together, knows what’s concealing weaknesses and what’s highlighting strengths. In her own case it’s more tricky: Which strength will help conceal her age on a market that doesn’t need her anymore? She isn’t old; still, her life is played in rewind, passing its chances, dreams and mischances: Otto, whom she forgets in the crisper; Walter, the Elvis Impersonator of the Mournful Countenance who widowed her; Eduard, who returned from town with another woman; her little sister who became so much of a mother that she even treats Maria like a child. By telling the stories of such quirky, eccentric, yet lovely people, Anna Weidenholzer draws the picture of a woman on the fringe of society. Which is still in the midst of life...

Apprentice Georg Rohrs isn't the sharpest tool in the box. But he has a dream: he wants to be the elevator boy in a seaside hotel, wants to escape on the night train with his first love Marlies and escape the confinement of his life at home. When Georg happens upon a dead body and accidentally steals his boss's suitcase full of dirty cash, his life begins to unravel: within a single weekend Georg loses his job, his apartment, his parents, his friends, his money, his love and maybe a piece of his sanity – and yet, at the end of this neck-breaking tour-de-force, an unknown sense of freedom awaits him... Martin Lechner's fast-paced debut novel is a whirlwind adventure where provincial comedy meets literary genius. Nominated for the German Book Prize 2014 (Longlist)