Ill and evil: how the mentally disturbed can become criminals

Anders Brevik, Josef Fritzl, or the ‘Ice Lady’– are criminals like these pure evil or are they in fact mentally ill? Why is a fanatic legally accountable, while someone delusional is not? Is one innocent and the other guilty? Forensic psychiatrist Thomas Stompe works with ‘mentally disturbed offenders’ who are not held in regular prison, but detained in mental health facilities with special security measures. He recounts fascinating details from cases he has encountered in his work practice as a therapist: the motives that drive the ill offenders; their delusions and crimes; their treatment and their lives ‘after the act’. The stories are disturbing, yet also provoke compassion for the offenders who are humans like you and I.

Bedtime stories about historical figures and well-known personalities, their beds and their secrets.

There’s better things to do in bed than count sheep. In fact, there’s hardly anything that can’t be done in bed! You can become famous, write history, make peace, wage wars and even travel the world – all from the comfort of your bed. For many historical figures and well-known personalities, from Odysseus to Michael Jackson, from Shakespeare to Marilyn Monroe, from Casanova to Madame Pompadour, bed was not only a place to rest, but also a workplace and stage. This book tells fascinating stories about these great people and their beds. Just the book for lazy people, tired people, sick people and anyone who believes that the world wouldn’t need to be bigger than their bed. If nothing else, it’s the perfect place to enjoy a book! You made your bed, now read in it! 3000 years of bedtime in one book: about the beds of Penelope Popeia, Scheherazade, Richard III., Shakespeares Witwe, Ludwig XiV., Mozart, Casanova, Kaiserin Sisi, Colette, Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe and what stories they have to tell.

On the occasion of the 200th birthday of the legendary opera composer

Aida, Nabucco, Rigoletto, Don Carlos, La Traviata – Guiseppe Verdi’s great operas are timelessly fascinating. Their heroines and heroes serve as mirrors of reality while also expressing a truth that Verdi sought to create. Like none other he employed passion as the driving force of his plots and created music with such strong emotions that it continues to captivate audiences to this day. Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz virtuously guides us through Verdi’s creative development as a composer, librettist, stage designer and politician. Verdi not only wrote history as a musical virtuoso, but also charmed his audience as a master of words. As an extra treat, this book includes his most beautiful quotes, commented by the author.

Titus’ mother has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Did she run away, was there an accident or was she murdered?

It’s been eight months since Titus’ mother disappeared without a trace. As a native Italian, she always remained a stranger in the village. His father had brought her with him from one of his expeditions. Rumors and suspicions quickly spread: Did she drown in the lake, did she run away with a lover, or was she the victim of a crime? Titus has been an outsider for years. He avoids people because of a burn scar in his face. The offer to live with and assist the new gravedigger seems like a good way to escape the confinement of his father’s home. As it turns out, the gravedigger is no stranger… Evelyn Grill takes her readers on a journey into a dark world full of secrets. Thrilling suspense from first to last page!

A poetic journey through our daily lives, full of little pin pricks.

The seasons come and go and the fight with and for life calmly continues. All loved ones live, they say. The house protects us as it confines us, two people united for a timeless moment – while feeling abandoned at the same time. Daliy life is difficult to master, memories arise, chemotherapy begins just like the search for one’s self. Or is it a search for you? The new season comes, and all loved ones live… Hans Eichhorn’s strong emotions and images reveal a world of estrangement, illness and hope. Brilliant!

Grotesque, satirical, and irresistibly funny. A sharp-tongued declaration of love to an era long gone.

It all begins quite harmless: True Kakanian patriot Jaromir von Eynhuf decides to bestow the gift of his milk tooth collection on his beloved monarch on the occasion of the latter’s royal jubilee. As fate will have it, the collection is still incomplete. On his quest for the last milk tooth, the loyal official of the royal court’s drum depot bravely faces the trials and tribulations of Kakania. With his debut novel, Fritz Herzmanovsky-Orlando created an unforgettable literary monument to Imperial Austria and the Habsburg monarchy.

A guide to finding the source of happiness in life.

When we lose balance in our lives, it’s time to asses the positive and negative aspects and to “take stock” of our inner self. Petrus Stockinger offers helpful advice and suggestions for this process. Drawing on the words of Saint Augustine, who wrote more than 1600 years ago that life in a monastery is about living “together in harmony, being of one mind and one heart on the way to God.” The author knows from his own experience that this is far from an easy task. He explains how to take inventory and revise one’s life in order to live “with a burning heart”. Even if we don’t actually live in a monastery, we all wish to create peace, draw strength and welcome new impulses in our daily lives.

What do Miranda July, Markus Werner and Wilhelm Genazino have in common? Read this book and you’ll know

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...

An intricate web of sex, power and money.

Gisela Stern has made it. Coming from a modest background, she managed to marry into a wealthy family, made a career for herself working at a bank and became part of the social elite. And yet, something is missing. She feels a sense of unfulfilled desire, of not quite belonging. When a good-looking, ambitious man enters her life, the carousel of power starts to spin, spinning out of control as politics and desire become more and more entangled… Peter Rosei’s novel – true to his typically laconic style – is the masterful staging of a woman’s rise and fall in the complicated web of a highly corrupt society. A sharp-witted and multifaceted novel.

Maximilian Ronge was the last director of the Austrian k.u.k. monarchy’s secret service. His career shows several similarities to the one of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, who headed the German military intelligence service under the Nazi regime. Ronge was an important figure in the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and also later, when Austria had become a republic. He used his extended networks of spies against “all kinds of traitors”, secessionists, socialists and Bolsheviks. Before 1938, no spy in Austria could possibly evade him. Even after being released from the Dachau concentration camp, Ronge continued his activities. After the end of WW II, he cooperated with the American occupants to set up a new secret service in Austria. These are only a few milestones in Ronge’s career. In the course of his life, this man has served many masters, but at heart he remained loyal to his emperor. Finding out about Ronge’s behind-the-scenes activities required meticulous research, since he not only was an expert in espionage and intrigue, but also a master in covering his tracks. The two historians Verena Moritz and Hannes Leidinger, however, give full account of this extraordinary life, and Ronge’s grandson Gerhard Jagschitz provides a private insight. A book that will cause a stir!