Christina Walker - In Defence of a Garden

Two women are on their way home in central Vienna one summer’s night when they happen upon a horse without a rider in a small alley. The slightly neglected animal trots along behind them until they reach their house in the suburbs, where it takes up residence in the garden. From this point on, the two women look after the latest addition to the household. What seems like a fairytale fantasy at first grows into an extraordinary novel about the coexistence between animals and humans, about animal rights and exploitation, self-determination and its limits. With elegance and wit, Jana Volkmann tells a highly topical story in which chicken factories are stormed and pigs gallop across the high street – a story in which every individual must decide for themselves how we, collectively, want to live in the future.

For railway worker Bertl and his wife Klara, Semmering represents a step up: his promotion to stationmaster includes a little house with a garden, no small thing at a time when Austria is in an economic crisis and unemployment is rife. Writing with verve and a passion for detail, Tanja Paar takes us behind the scenes of this elegant summer resort, exploring the lives of maids and woodcutters, smallholders and wealthy farmers, of Postmistress Negrelli and of Rahel, who cooks kosher meals for the Jewish guests. Political tensions slowly ratchet up—even here, in this peaceful spa town far from the capital of Vienna—and when the Nazis seize power in 1938, the idyll is finally shattered for good. Will Klara be able to save her friend Rahel from deportation?