Blau schillernde Käfer, pelzige Nachtfalter, mutige Heuschrecken und flirrende Libellen sind die Held*innen von Barbara Frischmuths neuen Erzählungen. Doch wenn wir genauer hinsehen, so geht es der Autorin nicht nur um sorgfältig beobachtete Insekten: Es geht um fein gezeichnete Symbiosen von Mensch und Natur, um seltene Mischwesen zwischen Mädchen und Käfer, um sprechende Libellen oder um das, was wir uns von den schlauen Heuschrecken abschauen können. Mit liebevollem Humor zeigen uns diese Geschichten, wie sehr wir Menschen Teil der Natur sind. Denn, so wird die Gärtnerin und Dichterin Barbara Frischmuth niemals müde zu betonen: Nur in einem Zusammenleben mit der Natur, das von Respekt und Achtsamkeit geprägt ist, haben wir alle eine Überlebenschance.

Die leidenschaftliche Gärtnerin Barbara Frischmuth weiß, dass sie immer nur zu Gast sein wird in ihrem Garten. Mit Rechen, Schaufel, Gartenschere und einigen anderen über die Jahrtausende entwickelten, oft ganz schlichten Gerätschaften bearbeiten wir Erde und Pflanzen, graben um, schneiden, setzen, ordnen, verteilen und ernten. Vor allem aber dürfen unsere Hände Gartengeräte nutzen, um mit den eigentlichen Bewohnern des Gartens in Austausch zu treten: mit Gräsern und Insekten, Blumen und Würmern, Wurzeln und Schnecken. Die Geschichte der Gartengeräte ist die Geschichte unserer Beziehung mit der Natur und allem, was in ihr lebt. Voller Dankbarkeit erzählt Barbara Frischmuth von dem, was ihre Hände im Garten brauchen.

Barbara Frischmuth's stirring début: the narrow world of a Catholic boarding school, the pupils and their aspirations, the teachers and their rules – the expression of a strict upbringing designed to restrict freedom of feeling, thought and action.

A girl by the name of Nevermind runs away from a camp and comes across the two-pleated toad, which is convinced it has created the world. Together they travel on and are joined by other creatures: a blind hen, a faint-hearted mouse and a loser called Little-Gottfried. All of them are attempting to escape the war, but this can now take on any shape imaginable, and the old, old world is heading for complete destruction. Something has to happen. Eliminate the headquarters! This sounds convincing enough, but nobody knows what or where the headquarters are, much less how they might be eliminated. Luckily the rats decide to step in – when did anything ever work out without the rats?! Can Nevermind succeed in halting the destruction?

Barbara Frischmuth is a master of stylistic abundance: full of compassion she takes a sometimes down to earth, sometimes humorously-grotesque look at the trials and tribulations of human interaction. Frischmuth tells of hellos and good-byes. From the story of a lovesick young archeologist who goes into hiding at her sister’s house and lives through a cathartic experience to a substitute fight between a grandmother and her granddaughter over a misplaced nail file. With her playful narration Frischmuth gives us glimpses of a simple truth: Time and again, reality is an experiment.

A book about responsibilities, the meaning of life and happiness in our age. We live in a hysterical time. A time that enables material wealth and incessant communication, but abandons the individual to his feelings isolation. After the failure of the big political utopias, our longing for happiness, attachment and closeness is all the greater, but we are trapped in our fragmented, accelerated day-to-day lives. The humanist psychologist and author Catalin Dorian Florescu counters this with the image of a serene, creative person capable of relating to others. In the autonomous concentration on their own self, the individual can overcome the attention crisis of our times and build meaningful relationships to others and the world around them.

With reference to the current demands for an 'ethical economy', Ute Frevert explores the difficult relationship between capitalism and morality, and asks whether all goods and services should be categorically and indiscriminately priced into the capitalist market model. Against the backdrop of current debates around common commodities such as water, and services such as assisted dying and prostitution, this question is more relevant than ever. Equally compelling are Frevert's observations on the expectations of fairness, justice and solidarity held by those who participate in today's globalised markets, be it as producers or consumers. What are the consequences of these expectations? Can they effect changes in the markets? And how have morality and economic practices developed in the course of modernity?

Michael Köhlmeier's contemplations on We are a plea for an inclusive community. The We can soothe, because it offers the lonely I a home and a notion of where it comes from. This We can provide integration. It is close to the I, it tells stories. But We is also a uniform that can be worn. Anyone can become the enemy of this We, it turns us into opportunists and dogmatists. This military We generates myths to sanction ideologies. But how does one We turn into the other? How does intimate family history turn into an ardent desire to kill and die for something that nobody has ever seen? And what can be done to prevent this transformation? The great raconteur Michael Köhlmeier delves deeply into the two-faced nature of We.

Human behaviour is driving our biosphere into the multiple crisis it is in today. But what is the evolutionary basis of human behaviour? And how much room for manoeuvre do we still have? The primary feature that distinguishes humans from other species is our rational potential, yet our everyday behaviour is shaped by irrational decisions. In view of the global survival problems we face, numerous and in some instances radical changes in behaviour are called for, both at an individual and a societal level. But most of all, we need a realistic perception of human nature. Never has it been more important to understand who we really are.

In seinen „Fallgeschichten“ erzählt Aris Fioretos über die Zwischenbereiche von Körper und Seele und über die Bilder und Erklärungsmodelle, die die Medizin um 1900 dafür geschaffen hat: Da ist die wahre Geschichte der Romanfigur Nelly B., deren Körper erbebt in der ersten Liebe zu einer jungen Frau und die wegen einem anderen Liebestaumel den Tod finden wird; jene Frau, die ihre Selbstwahrnehmung verliert und im Schwindel die Treppe hinabstürzt; der Neurologe Kolibar, der Vater von siamesischen Zwillingen wird und nach deren Tod dem Geheimnis geteilter Organe und Seelen nachforscht. Zärtlich, präzise und leidenschaftlich fragt Fioretos nach dem ebenso endlichen wie wandelbaren Wesen des Menschen, er spürt jenen Fragen nach, die die Medizin in ihren Vermessungen des Körpers offengelassen hat.