A wonderful book that takes the reader on new journeys across time and place.

Peter Rosei has always been on the move, led by an unfailing curiosity for landscapes and cities, people and their stories. 'The Great Road' for the first time brings together the chronicles of his travels across five decades and three continents. We get to know Peter Rosei as an acutely observant and knowledgeable traveller, who is open to impressions and images, scents and sounds. He steadily approaches the unknown and brings it close, without diminishing its fascination. This wonderfully labyrinthine book takes us from Peking to Los Alamos, from Seoul to Moscow, from Paris to Texas via Bratislava and Istanbul, brimming with the author's appreciation for the vibrancy of the world and the diversity of human life and survival.

Die maßgebliche Biografie auf aktuellstem Stand

A highly successful biography, this book by the Viennese music journalist and author Monika Mertl presents the personality, artistic intentions and unconventional development of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the famous Austrian conductor, from cellist to conductor, from ancient music specialist to universalist with a distinctive image. More than 15.000 copies of the original German edition, published in autumn 1999, have already been sold. Beyond the conventional biography, Mertl’s book is an invitation to meet the man behind the brilliant facade of artistic success, to reflect on music as well as on questions of partnership, family, religion, philosophy and humanity.

Germany’s Mother Courage of taboo breaking

Naturist, stunt pilot and sex pioneer – today Beate Uhse has cult status, but in the 1970's she was despised. She was a trailblazer for sexual enlightenment, built an international emporium out of nothing and is regarded as Germany's most successful businesswoman of the 20th century. Committed to the education of women on matters of contraception, she started out in the late 40's by selling information brochures on the topic. This provided her with the necessary seed capital to expand her mail order business for "matrimonial hygiene". Soon Uhse had over a million customers and was able to open the world's first sex shop. But in her personal life things didn't always turn out the way she wished. Katrin Rönicke provides a gripping portrait of the private and professional life of this extraordinary woman.

Settecento Castle conceals a secret world. A world ruled by beauty, perfection – and unimaginable cruelty.

Hidden away at Settecento, the shady 'Tsar' runs a modern-day boarding school modelled on Baroque-era music academies. Here, highly gifted boys are trained – and castrated – to enable them to sing the most spectacular roles, like the castrati of Baroque music. When Timo, a young boy with a magical voice, flees to Vienna and his mentor Matteo sets off in search of him, the music world is forced to confront reality. Matteo becomes a street singer and is both the hunter and the hunted. The Tsar is on his tracks and, in order to find Timo, he has to hold his own in the tough world of the homeless. Imbued with the sounds of Baroque opera, Daria Wilke's breathtaking story tells of a secret society that is prepared to pay any price for beauty.

Otto Wagner's diary of his final years – published for the first time.

October 26th 1915 was a fateful day for Vienna's leading architect and city planner. It was the day his wife Louise, 18 years his junior, died of cancer. Wagner had started to keep a diary when Louise was first diagnosed and continued to regularly record his memories of better days and comments on current developments. He intended the diary to be a memorial to is unparalleled love for Louise, yet it also reveals the misanthropic despair of a great artist. He considered himself to be at the peak of his craft and felt a Habsburg victory was close, bringing fresh opportunities to realise his plans. But old age afflictions and the miseries of WW1 took a growing toll on his day-to-day life. Rampant anti-Semitism, suffering and paranoia increasingly defined his thoughts. Three years on, the death of this patriarch coincided with the end of the Habsburg empire.

The second volume of Lukas Kummer's highly praised graphic novel series based on Thomas Bernhard's "Autobiographische Schriften".

In the second of his autobiographical works, Thomas Bernhard tells of the decision to remove himself from his life. Rather than continue attending school, he starts an apprenticeship in the cellar of a grocery store, on the outskirts of the detested town, in the ghetto of the have-nots and criminals. There he becomes acquainted with society's outcasts. He feels drawn to them and learns for the first time what it means to be accepted and to be 'useful'. Day-to-day life in the cellar turns out to be therapeutic. This place of limbo becomes a refuge, until a severe illness puts a sudden end to Bernhard's apprenticeship. In 'The Cellar', Lukas Kummer finds a relaxed pictorial language for the author's narrative tone. With precise strokes, Kummer accompanies Thomas Bernhard through what was probably the brightest period of his youth and throws a congenial light on the 'cellar'.

Chemistry is the most joyful science of our time.

Everything consists of a few building blocks, the elements. Nature, people, every single thing. One-hundred-and-fifty years ago, St. Petersburg scientist Dmitri Mendeleev applied a systematic order to all matter. Every element found its permanent place in the periodic table. But the periodic table has always been more than just a chart in the chemistry lab. Michael Pilz brings it to life by recounting the story from the beginning, and looking into the future at the end. He tells us about the old ores and elements of nature and about the antique concept of the four great elements. From the divine art of alchemy through to the scientific world of the periodic table and beyond, he provides a cultural history of world views and describes chemistry as the most joyful science of our time.

With courage, humour and honesty, four women confront the big question of what kind of life we should, can and want to have in our old age.

Four women at the end of a life stage – and at the beginning of a new one, in which they strike out on an unconventional path with humour and solidarity. Ella finds herself alone in her large period apartment. Finally alone? Or lonely after all? There's Rada, the Rumanian carer of her deceased husband, and Ella's sister, the colourful Maggie, who has returned after her international career. And there’s her neighbour Luise, who's been left for a younger woman. What kind of life do they want to have in their old age? What's possible? What's permitted? Will they be invisible or invincible? Fulfilled or frustrated? And most importantly – will they each live alone or all together? Their answer is brave and unconventional – and soon Ella's large apartment is full of life and heated discussions about politics, family ... and sex.

Does the market have limits, and who sets them?

With reference to the current demands for an 'ethical economy', Ute Frevert explores the difficult relationship between capitalism and morality, and asks whether all goods and services should be categorically and indiscriminately priced into the capitalist market model. Against the backdrop of current debates around common commodities such as water, and services such as assisted dying and prostitution, this question is more relevant than ever. Equally compelling are Frevert's observations on the expectations of fairness, justice and solidarity held by those who participate in today's globalised markets, be it as producers or consumers. What are the consequences of these expectations? Can they effect changes in the markets? And how have morality and economic practices developed in the course of modernity?

I frog mi imma: Wos is schlimma? Bes oda bled?

Christine Nöstlinger's new vernacular poems are profound, pithy and full of darkly humorous overtones. They tell of hopes and fears, of avarice and of dealing with old age. The work-shy "Jasmin from stairway four" is a drain on her husband's pocket, "West Street Station Rudi" observes life's little and big ladies on the station platform every day, quiet Mr Meier only reveals his secret fantasies of violence to his goldfish – is that reason to call the police? The verses gathered from Christine Nöstlinger's estate provide a nuanced look at life by focusing on the margins of society. A must for all friends of Viennese vernacular poetry and Nöstlinger fans.