The life journey of a remarkable young woman in a century full of extremes: a touching, powerfully eloquent and vivid novel.

“Anna was born in Vienna on December 3, 1909, as the second eldest of the four daughters of glass painting master Franz Goetzer.” This is the laconic beginning of Erika Pluhar’s new novel. It tells the story of a highly talented woman who studies at the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts between the two World Wars and dreams of leading a self-determined life. However, her emigration to Brazil, her marriage and most of all, the early stages of Nazi fascism keep her from fulfilling her lifelong dream for many years. Erika Pluhar paints an empathetic and insightful picture of the hopes, desires and fears that Anna feels as a young woman coming of age in a century full of political extremes. Austria, Brazil, Germany and Poland are stations in a life that takes several unexpected turns.

Dirty secrets: explosive research behind closed doors.

They clean our toilets, take care of our kids and change grandma’s nappies – we hardly allow anyone so far into the privacy of our lives and homes as our cleaning ladies, babysitters or caretakers. Who are these ‘service providers’ with keys to our homes? Where are they from, what are their lives like? Journalist Sybille Hamann relentlessly investigates a work sector that our society can no longer live without. In her book she peeks behind closed doors, visits children left behind and encounters a world full of lies and feeling ashamed. To get an even closer look, she went undercover in the self-experiment of working as a cleaning lady under a false name. Full of hard and poignant facts, this book is a thrilling read.

The end of the world is near once again. Be prepared! Read this book!

The end of the world isn’t picky. But what if you survive? Just like Martina and her little brother who are saved from the flaming inferno by a young stranger. They meet other survivors, an old man and his granddaughter, with whom they flee to the next valley. Does life end here or does it begin anew? The world beyond the mountains is dead, burnt, buried in toxic dust. What is left after the disaster is barely enough for survival, just enough for life in a cave. After they get settled in they start waiting – but for what? There is no saving ark in sight. The old man surly doesn’t believe in the future. A struggle begins – for survival, for hope, for remaining human. Hannelore Valencak creates gloomy scenarios to illustrate the world after the end of the world: even more radical than Marlen Haushofer’s “The Wall” and more relentless than Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”.

Karl May trifft Franz Kafka auf einem Schiff nach Amerika. Wahr? Besser kann man es nicht erfinden ...

Karl May met Franz Kafka on a ship to the United States. Fact or a brilliant piece of fiction? In his mind, the adventure author Karl May visited the United States a million times. But it is not until September 1908 that the 66 year-old, accompanied by his second wife, Klara, actually boards ship to New York in Bremerhaven. As fate will have it, Karl May meets the famous Franz Kafka on board. The very gaunt and very pale young man is standing at the railing. God forbid, is he about to throw himself into the sea? Who else but Karl May and his much younger wife could save him for the sake of life and literature? The ensuing love triangle completes the ingredients to this great story. Peter Henisch’s novel is a hilarious fantasy, an intimate novel settled somewhere between fact and fiction. With lightness, yet lots of sensitivity he succeeds in joining what we were drilled to keep apart from an early age: Franz Kafka vs. Karl May, high vs. low culture, living a lie vs. living in fear. It comes as no surprise that this book sends sparks flying!

The most glamorous couple of the roaring twenties.

He gave an era its name. She was the main character in all his novels. Together they were the dream couple of the Jazz Age and the ‘lost generation’. The famous author F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda lived their lives to the fullest, seeking happiness, yet finding desperation. Rich and successful, infamous for their antics and excessive drinking habits in New York, Paris and on the French Riviera, they were the idols of an entire generation. But soon the blessed were damned: their excessive lifestyle, creative blocks and mental issues all contributed to the couple’s downfall. The myth, however, continues to flourish… Michaela Karl paints a vivid biographical portrait of an entire era and the two main characters whose lives became literature.

They’re everywhere. And no one knows where they came from…

Journalist Martin Koller is in hospital and cannot sleep. He is tortured by strange sounds in his ear that have thrown him into a deep depression. The fact that his wife desperately wants a child from him and that a young, ambitious colleague is messing with his research in the right-wing extremist scene isn’t exactly helping. Then he finds out that his mother is on the brink of death. So he pulls himself together and heads back to his childhood home. He spends a few days alone with his mother. And then, the visitors start showing up and taking over the entire house. They’re all over the place: in the cellar, in the rooms, in the attic. No one knows where they came from, no one knows what they want. A doctor Martin has known since his youth calls and tells him that she has made a mysterious discovery. A nightmare begins.