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”.

Two people make a pair, or a couple, and their relationships can be ruins, arenas, traps, abysses, fulfilment. Coincidence, desire, and life itself create amazing couples: A little girl and her imaginary father make a fantastic pair of liars; a young woman teams up with her unborn child against its father who is interested in his art only; a prisoner and his visitor share intense memories through the glass that separates them. These are some of the encounters Erika Pluhar describes in this book. All of them reveal the magic that arises in any relationship between two people, be they just acquaintances or lovers, a powerful and fascinating energy that inevitably shows its effect on everyone involved. The stories tell how people change whenever they cling to each other, find each other, lose themselves in each other – whenever they meet, touch or find the magic of being twosome.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? Composer, Salzburg, Serenade in G (Da dam dada, da dam dada). What else do you know about Mozart? Was he wet-nursed? A football player? A friend of Winnetou? Did anyone ever give him the bird? And was the bird a music whiz? Did Mozart have milk with his coffee? Prefer wine or beer? Were his feet really as small as a lady’s? Has he ever had potato salad with his Wiener Schnitzel? Why did he have nine trousers, nine shirts and a fur coat when he died as a poor man? You have no idea? Well, seems like the Mozart Anniversary Year did not have the slightest effect on you! Luckily, Kurt Palm and his collection of 47 pieces, illustrated by Tex Rubinowitz, make a perfect Da Capo. This is your last chance. Take it!

Zum 251. Geburtstag von Wolfgang Mozart - glauben Sie uns: Sie wissen noch immer nicht genug! Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? Komponist, Salzburg, „Eine kleine Nachtmusik“, bam ba bam ba bam ba bam ba ba. Und was wissen Sie sonst noch? Wurde Mozart von einer Amme gestillt? Spielte Mozart Fußball? War Mozart mit Winnetou befreundet? Hatte Mozart mehr als einen Vogel? War Mozarts Vogel ein Genie? Trank Mozart seinen Kaffee mit Milch? Wein oder lieber Bier? Hatte Mozart wirklich Schuhgröße 36? Hat Mozart jemals Erdäpfelsalat gegessen? Warum besaß Mozart, als er verarmt starb, neun Hosen, neun Hemden und einen Pelzmantel? Sehen Sie, das Mozart-Jahr ist spurlos an Ihnen vorüber gegangen. Kurt Palm liefert ein Da capo in 47 Stücken, mit Zeichnungen von Tex Rubinowitz. Das ist Ihre letzte Chance. Nutzen Sie sie!

„Weil du, mein Um und Auf, für mich, deinem Ab und Zu, unsterblich bist.“

Vieles, an dem der Dichter als Einzelgänger achtlos vorüberginge, rührt ihn ans Herz, wenn er denkt: Schade, dass ich zu ihr, der ja jetzt nur in meinen Gedanken Anwesenden, nicht „Schau!“ sagen kann. So trägt er das Gesehene und Erlebte im Kopf nach Hause, denn es wird ihr auch als ein von ihm Beschriebenes gefallen. Julian Schutting führt Spielarten einer Seelenliebschaft vor, eines luftigen, aber mit starken Fäden ausgestatteten Gespinsts, belebt von einem Hauch von Sinnlichkeit, der die gemeinsam betrachteten Dinge in ein neues Licht taucht; einer frei schwebenden Zusammengehörigkeit, die sich auch in Unterhaltungen über Dinge des Alltags ausdrückt, in heiteren Wechselreden, einem scherzhaft-fiktiven Frage-und-Antwort-Spiel. Ein halb vollkommenes Glück, das aber vielleicht nur ein geborgtes ist: „bis zu unserem ersten Tag hab ich an ein leichtes Dahingehen geglaubt. aber von dem an weiß ich, du wirst mir eine Abschiedserschwernis sein: mein Ein und Alles in dir zurückzulassen!“

The little ghost was born in Leopoldstadt – Vienna's 2nd district – into a world of culture and poetry, of warmth and sensuality. But unfortunately this world is doomed: Bad ghosts seize power and with them they bring persecution, death, and banishment. The little ghost overcomes this time thanks to his pure character, his braveness, and his prudence. He lives through many adventures that will finally lead him to success and honour. The popular graphic artist has furnished this fantastic-imaginative story with lots of colourful pictures. Gustav Peichl is one of the great creative people in this country. In his distinctive work – in both his architecture and his caricatures – he skillfully combines aesthetics, humor, and sensuality. As he does in the affectionately designed story of the little ghost from Leopoldstadt.

Bulgarien kommt, der ultimative Roman dazu ist schon da. Und: Er ist saukomisch.

Bulgaria? Backward, corrupt and lazy? As the new ambassador in London, Varadin Dimitrov, is designated to enhance the image of Bulgaria in the West. When he rings the bell at the respectable address of the embassy in Kensington one morning, he finds that there is indeed a lot of work ahead of him: a provincial mayor at hangover breakfast, the cook at loggerheads with his wife, the vacuum cleaner – broken. Indeed, the civilized world owes thanks to Bulgaria for the invention of the water closet, but that does not help the new ambassador on his mission, nor does the fact that his predecessor refuses to clear the house as he is desperately fighting his return home. And above all: the freezer in the cellar houses ducks kidnapped by the Russian Mafia. Mission impossible? Varadin Dimitrov seeks assistance with a PR-Agency that promises him access to London's high society – glitter, glamour and dozens of celebrities. One of them is his cleaning lady; she leads a double life and moreover she's been dead for the longest time. There's something terribly wrong here, isn't it …. Alek Popov tells of the East in the West and the West in the East. In this novel full of wonderful characters he tells a story of pure folly, sounding as if all of this were not in the least bit funny. English translation available

Die Geschichte einer slowakischen Familie als Paradigma eines Lebens in der Heimatlosigkeit.

At seventeen, daughters never have an easy time with their mothers: The leech is always too short and in Czechoslovakia it must be still a bit shorter. When people say "a chip off the old block" mothers are usually more pleased than daughters. Jasmine Bukovská does not give her mom any reason for such a pleasure as she resembles her aunt: the woman whom her father loved and still loves. Marriage was thwarted by family reason. Then came Róza, the younger sister, satisfied her curiosity about life with the would-be brother-in-law, got pregnant and could be married. Three daughters sprang from this marriage: Iris, Jasmine and Kamilla. Life gets cramped at home as well as in the entire country. Spring in the year 1968 is the time of the great departure: Iris, the elder sister takes advantage of a gap in the Iron Curtain and emigrates to the United States of America, and also for Jasmine the temptation of leaving home and her home country behind grows …. Zdenka Becker is at home between two countries and in two languages. In a questioning tone, but without vain over-verbalization she tells of the loss of old commitments and the search for a new identity.

Die letzten Tage der Menschheit finden ihre Fortsetzung in einem Roman von beklemmender Kühnheit.

Carried off to Europe as a slave, a souvenir of an Africa expedition Gatterbauertwo is second footman to his master Alois Gatterbauer and looking for his home Uganda. After a time of meandering and after many detours he ends up in Hungary, goes to the dogs, and at the home of Count Pallavicini he is to be turned into a cultivated, converted catholic butler. He learns quickly: manners, waiting, German – but most of all he learns to hate. When heir apparent Franz Ferdinand is killed in Serbia and World War I breaks loose he is well prepared for his new role: He goes to war – for a strange emperor, a strange god, and a country that is not his. How can you survive Europe, the wild continent, the permanent war in the heart of darkness? And what does humanity mean, when man is nothing more than a cue ball of foreign powers – slave, soldier, object to look on, object of lust, a commodity? Based on meticulously researched historic material Max Blaeulich draws the picture of a society degenerated to the core: Europe, a culture where moral values have been perverted by racist arrogance and greed; Europe, gloriously stumbling across dead bodies from one catastrophe into the next. The quote from Dostoevsky tunes in for a grotesque pitch. Blaeulich is a master of this field, and he is in good company: Gogol, Canetti, Gombrowicz, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Sergio Pitol, just to name a few. The genre of the grotesque itself is a blossom of baroque art. Blaeulich is a baroque author not only because of his characterisations, but also because of his roaming, straying, slope-searching way of storytelling. LEOPOLD FÖDERMAIER, NZZ