They flock his book launch presentations. At his lectures they stand in line for getting dedications and personalized autographs. And when they have finished reading his latest book they write him letters. Yes, women love him – and he loves them in return. But who are those others, whom Dietmar Grieser renders homage to when he is to himself, aside from his professional life. In twenty-eight sometimes very personal portraits he makes them take curtain calls: women who in certain phases of his life have meant a lot to him, have left a very special impression on him, perhaps have shaped him, in any case women who have secured themselves a permanent place in Dietmar Grieser’s memory. Women, whom he met personally and who have accompanied him for some time on the paths that led him through life, find themselves next to others, whose fate has won him over. And yet others whose picture he “only” got to know in literature, in music, in pieces of the Fine Arts or on film screens. Dietmar Grieser, the literary investigator: the man who found the bestseller gene. News

Authors like Andrea Maria Dusl, Julia Franck, Christine Kaufmann, Ruth Klüger, Eva Menasse, Ingrid Noll, Lilo Wanders as well as numerous other cat lovers from German-speaking countries can’t all be wrong: Cats are not only the most literary of all animals, they also have unmistakably unique characters. They are unrivaled as purring heating pads, imaginative jokers and compassionate housemates. Their taste is incorruptible, whether they are dealing with cat food, new family members, dogs, new lovers or potential husbands. Ruth Rybarski has collected 30 as of yet unpublished love declarations to cats. A must for all cat lovers and all those who are thinking of becoming one.

Adored as a god in ancient Egypt, cats traveled the spheres of the known world on ship and on their four paws. They were at home in the libraries and kitchens of monasteries, roamed through backyards and allies, slept in royal beds, were useful against mice and served as muses. Humans have felt love, suspicion and hate towards cats. Their mysterious nature has raised superstitions, but has also been a source of inspiration. It was always artists, most of all writers who were on the cat’s side. Thus the history of the cat is also one of the arts, a cultural history, the history of humankind. Cats have come a long way and this book traces the steps: from early times all the way to the snuggly sofa of today.