Military mishaps and mistakes

As the world power of its time, the Habsburg empire not only was the main defender against the Turks in the east, but, over the centuries, also fought various alliances attacking in the west. For a long time, the Austrian army was counted among the world’s most powerful, and acclaimed commanders such as Prince Eugene of Savoy or Count Leopold von Daun were victorious on many battlefields – and horribly defeated on others. Glorious victories were achieved under the Austro-Hungarian flag, but there were also military mishaps, serious blunders and blatant misjudgements which turned the tides in a battle or even decided the outcome of a war. These are the stories told in this book. In fascinating case studies, Hans-Dieter Otto analyses the reasons for these mistakes and introduces the reader to captivating chapters in Austria’s military history.

An amusing book for philosophy lovers about the deeply human nature of human nature.

Philosophy starts with someone thinking unhealthy thoughts. The philosopher in this book however, is not some wacky freelancer. No, he is a civil servant living in a humble civil servant’s apartment with a lifelong job guarantee like it is no longer found in today’s world. As an upright civil servant he never tires of explaining the nature of his special subject to young people: “Philosophizing means learning to relax!” Together with his companions, the full-blooded pug Paul, the two guinea pigs Fritzi & Fratzi and his friend Idiot, our lover of wisdom stumbles through life, shaking, but determined to face each apocalypse that life confronts him with.

Our daily event give us today.

Padre Pio can float in thin air, the dead can come back to life, faqirs can make themselves invisible and Virgin Mary can heal tumors. It seems like God never tires of trying out new things. Just like people never tire of miracles in their lives, whether its sports or a classical concert. This book is a perfect opportunity to marvel. Adolf Holl offers a concise overview of the long history of humankind’s belief in miracles. In a fine balancing act between stories and aphorisms he captures the rare moments that open our eyes to a world full of miracles. A must for everyone who wants to believe and marvel.

A small-town policeman faces a mountain of corpses: this is not a regular crime novel

In late April 1945 hundreds of Jewish forced laborers from Hungary on the death trail heading to Mauthausen end up in a refugee camp in Persenbeug on the Danube. The frontlines both east and west are as close as the end of the war. The Second Republic has already been proclaimed in nearby Vienna and Adolf Hitler is already dead when a motorized SS taskforce covertly attacks the camp and massacres 223 people in a bloodbath. Hardly anybody admits to having seen or heard anything, but inspector Franz Winkler, a Deputy Commander left to his own devices in this remote town, begins to investigate. He risks his head to save his skin. Will he manage to save the nine survivors of the massacre? Manfred Wieninger documents one of the most extraordinary criminal cases in Austrian history while maintaining a fine balance between historical report and fictitious elements. He turns history into a story, in which the victims are no longer nameless.

First love and buried hopes: the summer that changed everything.

As a seventeen year-old, Anastasia spends an entire summer in Ephesus instead of accompanying her mother, a dancer, and her constantly changing lovers on a trip through the United States. During the dig she learns more about her father’s lifelong obsession, which destroyed more than her parents’ marriage – Ephesus, the city that had only existed in her dreams and in the books her father, a famous archeologist, had written. She also meets Hubert again, her first love and her father’s favorite student, who once upon a time was a permanent fixture in her parents’ home. That summer, Anastasia still believes that her future is just beginning, but then the season ends in disaster… When she hears of her father’s death many years later, she finds out what actually happened that summer and before. And why he and Hubert wanted nothing to do with her as soon as that summer was over.

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.

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.