Erika Pluhar beschreibt eine Kindheit im Ausnahmezustand. Einfühlsam, offen, schonungslos.

A childhood spent in a state of exception – a touching story, unsparingly told. Anna is the daughter of an actress and a business-minded, power-hungry genius designer. Her parents are prominent figures in the public eye. The family suffers from the father’s excessive lifestyle, while the mother’s acting profession places increasing demands on her. Anna spends a lot of time in the care of frequently changing nannies, happy family occasions are rare. A joint holiday on Mykonos turns out to be a life-changing event for the young family, but puts even greater pressure on Anna’s childhood world. In an open and unsparing, yet sensitive manner, Erika Pluhar describes a childhood spent in a state of exception.

Ein dokumentarischer Roman, wie man ihn sich brisanter und spektakulärer nicht ausdenken könnte.

It’s hard to imagine a more dramatic and controversial documentary novel. In 1938 the Sandgrube vineyard – one of the most famous vineyard estates in the Wachau valley – is owned by the Jewish businessman Paul Robitschek. His partner is August Rieger. Robitschek and the supposed baron are business partners, as well as glamorous lovers. Denunciations clear the path for the Aryanisation of an estate that would eventually become the basis of the famous Krems vintners’ cooperative – a name that is synonymous with wine and culture far beyond the national borders. This Aryanisation has to date never been the subject of investigation. The authors were able to recover a hoard of documents, enabling them to tell a staggering story of betrayal and loyalty, love and business, destruction and repression.

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.

An anonymous narrator makes a complaint to the postmaster of a small Bavarian country post office about the weaknesses of the postmen: one is an alcoholic, the second a womaniser, the third has succumbed to a cultural vice. Of course, the com-plainant’s discontent also applies to the butcher, the vet, the teachers and others – in short: to the inadequacy of the world. The writer, a local resident, keeps complaining about the postal delivery. It is unreliable, he says; the postal delivery is the most unreliable thing. If that’s the way it is, says Blumauer, if that local resident is complaining about the postal delivery, then the following will happen: I shall complain about my moped.

Neu zu entdecken: eine quicklebendige und erstaunlich aktuelle Mischung aus Science-Fiction, Märchen und Roman.

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?

Alle reden über die Kinder aus Patchworkfamilien, doch wie geht es den Stiefmüttern?

Patchwork families are a common occurrence these days. Yet much too little is said about the women who take on the role of stepmother in these new family structures. More often than not, they see the addition to the family as an enrichment. But how do they deal with the situation if their partner’s children reject them? Or if they don’t manage to develop feelings for their “bonus children”? What happens when sharing a home with your new partner threatens to founder on issues concerning the children? Because there is no universal script for being a stepmother and each family’s story is unique, this extensive analysis of the situation is supplemented by contributions from women talking about their personal experiences. This is a multifaceted reading book on the topic: unadorned, honest and sanguine.

Authentische Einblicke in die historischen Ereignisse. Lebendig, persönlich und spannend.

1918 was a year of radical change and big emotions in Austria. How did the contemporary witnesses experience this time? The aristocracy, bourgeoisie and working classes have their say in authentic accounts. The book brings to light the extremely diverse assessments of that great upheaval. For some it signified the downfall of their homeland and their personal ruin, for others a hopeful new beginning: the mourning of Old Austria and the monarchy, hate for the aristocracy and the Habsburgs, the shock of having been defeated in war, embitterment and resignation, joy over the ending of the war and hope for better times. Gudula Walterskirchen has gathered previously unpublished letters, diaries and recollections which bring that year of great turmoil back to life.

Die präzise recherchierte Aufarbeitung eines Kriegsverbrechens, zugleich ein schonungsloses Porträt der Nachkriegszeit, die sich der Auseinandersetzung mit dem Naziverbrechen verweigert.

Kapfenberg in the Austrian Steiermark region, 1957: In the course of a custody battle, Anna Koinegg reports her child’s father, a former member of the Waffen-SS, for having participated in the execution of Jews. The accusation relates to the shooting of 29 Hungarian Jewish forced labourers in Jennersdorf in the early days of 1945, in which he was supposedly involved. But the political mood favours suppression and the charges are brushed under the carpet – until in 1966 the German authorities become involved and the case lands on the desk of former Spanish Civil War activist and detective Hans Landauer. Together the Mannheim lawyers and the disagreeable inspector from Vienna travel to Jennersdorf, to brake the wall of silence and uncover the traces of a massacre that nobody wants to remember...

Mit Haltung durchs Leben. Fundiert, ironisch, witzig.

Economic crises, the success of populist parties, the return of nationalistic reflexes, the rapidly advancing digitalisation of everyday life and work are reason enough for pessimism. Discussions are held in an increasingly aggressive tone, blatantly displayed ignorance rules the virtual and real-world debates. It seems as if everyone has an opinion, but nobody has any idea where the socio-political journey is taking us. All the more welcome is this guide for living in such unsettled times – knowledgeable and well-founded, yet with plenty of humour and irony. This is a book that engagingly addresses the big topics of the present age: populism, fear of downward mobility and pressure to perform, increased harshness of communication, yearning for leadership, anxiety about the future.

Ein zutiefst humanistisches Buch, das Beziehungsfähigkeit und Konzentration gegen das kollektive Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit unserer Zeit setzt.

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.