Spring 2015 - Aufbau Verlag

Foreign Rights Guide
Spring 2015
Eva
Baronsky
Verena Boos
Isabella Straub
Jule Gölsdorf
Christian
Buder
Barbara Frischmuth
Florian Beckerhoff
Christine von Brühl
Lorenz
Beckhardt
CONTENT:
Literary Fiction Blumenbar
Matthias Jügler
»Raubfischen«
Gina Mayer
»Leonore und ihre Töchter«
3
Valerie Bielen
»Nur mit deinen Augen«
Isabella Straub
»Das Fest des Windrads«
4
Crime/Thriller
Christine Koschmieder
»Schweinesystem«
5
Jule Gölsdorf
»Mörderisches Monaco«
Literary Fiction Aufbau
Verena Boos
»Blutorangen«
Christian Buder
»Der Tote im Moor«
6
14
15
Biography & Memoir
Tocotronic / Martin Hossbach /
Jens Balzer
»Die Tocotronic Chroniken«
20
Rolf Brendel
»Nena. Geschichte einer Band« 21
16
Manfred Flügge
»Das Jahrhundert der Manns«
22
17
Christine von Brühl
»Anmut im märkischen Sand«
23
Lorenz S. Beckhardt
»Der Jude mit dem Hakenkreuz«
24
Non-Fiction
Eva Baronsky
»Manchmal Rot«
7
Michèle Minelli
»Die Verlorene«
Barbara Frischmuth
»Der unwiderstehliche Garten«
18
8
Sabrina Janesch
»Tango für einen Hund«
Ruth Fend
»Wok‘n‘Roll«
19
9
Popular Fiction
Natalie Simon
»Das Lied des blauen Mondes«
10
Florian Beckerhoff
»Drei nach Norden« 11
Photo credits (f.l.t.r) :
Nikola Hotel
»Jetzt oder Nils«
12
Ellen Berg
»Ich will es doch auch«
13
Stefan Schweiger, Marius Rittmeyer,
Winfried Höh, Kay Itting, Harry Weber,
Thomas Kierok, Christian Jungwirth,
Monika Sandel
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
PLEASE CONTACT:
Inka Ihmels
Foreign Rights Manager
Tel: +49-30-28394-123
ihmels@aufbau-verlag.de
Literary Fiction
THE SECRET OF LIFE IS HIDDEN
BELOW THE SURFACE
Deep Water is a story of saying goodbye and setting out, an end and a new beginning. It
tells of the realisation that there is no right or wrong and that death is an enemy you can
look square in the eyes.
Daniel’s world is full of turmoil, but spending his holiday with his grandfather in southern Sweden on Lake Tostaholmen means everything to him – learning about the lake’s
predatory fish and the mysterious world under the water. But then his grandfather begins to suffer from ALS. First, he loses his appetite, then his voice and finally the ability
to breathe. Daniel cannot stand passively watching, so he makes a bold decision. He’s
going to abduct his grandfather and drive him to the place where they caught so many
memories together.
A boy, his grandfather, and a passion that teaches us much about life; a mysterious occurrence from the past that must be resolved, the threat of losing a loved one and the
gorgeous Swedish landscape of forests and lakes, as endearing as the eccentric locals.
as
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tian Kom
Matthias Jügler
Raubfischen
Deep Water
Novel. 240 pp.
Blumenbar. Hardcover
2015, February
nick
Matthias Jügler, born in 1984 in Halle/Salle. He studied
German and Scandinavian language and literature in Halle,
Greifswald and Oslo. He then completed his master’s degree at the German Institute for Literature in Leipzig, and
since then has translated literature from the Norwegian. He
has received many honours and recognitions for his texts.
Deep Water is his literary debut.
»Jügler’s language is tranquil and clear as glass. The way he speaks of the end of life will
captivate you.« Matthias Nawrat
3
Literary Fiction
WOULDN’T IT BE NICE IF THINGS WERE NICER?
The Festival of the Windmill is a novel about the affronts of everyday life, about stumbling
on the professional ladder and the attempt to choose the right path in life when you’re
starting from the wrong point.
In early evening Greta’s train comes to an unexpected stop just outside of a provincial
Austrian town. She’s on her way to a big endoscopy conference in San Marino and to
the promotion she’s sure she’ll get. She doesn’t have much time, so she jumps from the
train window. When she stumbles across the taxi driver Jurek at the edge of town, she
doesn‘t realise she’s surprised him during one of his rare mating attempts. And little does
she suspect that aloof Jurek and the austere village are just the beginning of her greatest
challenge: an encounter with herself. Her entire course is changed that weekend when
the windmill, a relic of the American occupation, goes up in ceremonial flames.
Isabella Straub
Das Fest des Windrads
The Festival of the Windmill
Novel. 352 pp.
Blumenbar. Hardcover
2015, March
»Isabella Straub’s tale is bold and energetic. We gladly follow her into the most absurd everyday situations.« NZZ
»A critique of our times conducted in a fleet-footed tone that skilfully shifts between tragedy
and comedy.« ORF Radio Broadcaster
Photo: S
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weiger
Isabella Straub was born in 1968 in Vienna. She studied
philosophy and German language and literature. She has
worked as a journalist for a large Austrian daily newspaper,
and as an advertising copywriter in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee. Her novel Looking In was shortlisted for the Bremen
Promotion Prize and the Franz Tumler Prize, and it won the
Erfurter Herbstlese Debut Prize.
P R E V I O U S P U B L I C AT I O N S :
Isabella Straub
Südbalkon
Looking In
Novel. 254 pp.
Blumenbar. Hardcover
2013, March
Sample translation available
Selected for New Books in German
4
Literary Fiction
HOW THE POLITICAL BECOMES PRIVATE –
TWO WOMEN, TWO SYSTEMS,
ONE STRUGGLE
1979. Elisabeth and Shirley are both facing unwanted pregnancies – the West German
high school teacher as a result of a group therapy session on the theme of sexual freedom, and the slaughterhouse worker from Iowa thanks to her chauvinistic boyfriend.
After their secret abortions in London, they’re united by a tube of lipstick and a shared
struggle for their independence. But the more they try to escape their fate, the more they
seem to provoke it – and the secret services of West Germany and the United States.
Two years later, Shirley is dead and Elisabeth has gone into hiding. And yet, things had
all started so harmlessly: a Hollywood-style love affair in the German countryside, a promising new beginning in Iowa, a few little white lies …
The American Dream meets German efficiency. Black Panthers, the Red Army Fraction,
FBI and the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, radicalization
and emancipation – those are the cornerstones of this incredible story, which Christine
Koschmieder tells with mastery and fine irony.
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Photo: 2
ges / Par
tner + P
ropagan
da
Christine Koschmieder
Schweinesystem
Porked
Novel. 390 pp.
Blumenbar. Hardcover
2014, August
Sample translation available
»A novel that compellingly demonstrates how much love and courage is required to listen to
the conspirative mumblings of our pasts.« Georg Klein
Christine Koschmieder, born 1972, lives and works in
Leipzig. Since 2003, she has led a literary agency, and while
she has never worked in a slaughterhouse, as a terrorist or
a Mary Kay consultant, she does travel regularly to Iowa. In
2013, she received a grant from the Cultural Foundation of
the Free State of Saxony. Porked is her debut.
»Fast-paced and darkly comical, the novel initiates the reader into the spirit of the early 80s, a
time in which the word ›post‹ was not yet predominantly associated with ›modern‹ or ›feminism‹, but rather with letters and stamps. Christine Koschmieder assembles a unique world, in
which everything seems to yearn for freedom, even the popcorn.« Inger-Maria Mahlke
5
Literary Fiction
Empathy is, first of all,
an act of imagination
For the young Spanish woman Maite, studying abroad in Munich is an opportunity
to flee her conservative family. Her home in Valencia, famous for its flawless oranges
wrapped in tissue paper, becomes foreign to her, as does her family. She falls in love
with Carlos, who comes from a German-Spanish family and befriends his grandfather Antonio, who collects orange wrappers. Maite breaks Antonio’s silence with
her questions about the past. She has to get to the bottom of the question: How did
her father end up wearing a German Wehrmacht uniform? And what is Antonio still
concealing from Maite, even if he sits with her at the kitchen table and tells of his
escape from Spain? When a mass grave from the Franco era is opened, the fates of
her boyfriend’s family and her own finally come to light.
Verena Boos’ impressive debut about the subtle differences between guilt and duty
links German and Spanish history over the course of three generations, touching us
as only literature can.
Verena Boos, was born in 1977 in Rottweil and now lives in Frankfurt. She studied
sociology and English literature, and completed a doctorate in history. She spent
many years in Italy, Great Britain and Spain. She has worked as a journalist, lecturer
and in fundraising. Since 2010, she has lived as a freelance author and editor.
»An astonishing and worthwhile debut novel that presents a diversity of material as
is normally only seen from our great writers.« Thomas Lehr
Verena Boos
Blutorangen
Blood Oranges
Novel. 411 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2015, March
»This moment is the eye of a time-storm
that reaches from the big bang to the end of days.
These sixty-five years, during which the murderers upheld
injustice, were nothing more than a shudder,
a quake across the face of the earth.«
6
Literary Fiction
»I’ve only just started
to be somebody.«
In this modern fairy tale, a real-life short-circuit causes two normally separate worlds
to crash together: that of a successful lawyer, and the other of an illegal cleaning
woman. Both will have to let go of everything they never thought to question before.
Everything is going well: Christian is about to make a great business deal. Unfortunately first he has to get rid of the senior executive of his firm, close an extravagant
Swiss money laundering account and finally accept that his girlfriend has left him.
He only gets to know his cleaning lady Angelina because she falls off of a ladder in
his apartment. When she wakes up in the hospital, she can no longer remember
or write her name. As she researches the woman she used to be, in disbelief, she
reinvents herself. The world of music reveals itself to her, and the world of letters
she didn’t before know existed. In the process, she develops a self-awareness that
Christian finds increasingly fascinating – and that leaves him ever more uncertain
himself.
Eva Baronsky
Manchmal rot
Sometimes Red
Novel. 352 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2015, February
P R E V I O U S P U B L I C AT I O N S :
Eva Baronsky’s warm-hearted novel recounts the story of two people who have to let
go of everything they’re certain of.
Eva Baronsky, was born in 1968 and lives in Taunus. For her extraordinary and
extremely successful debut novel, Herr Mozart Wakes Up, she received the promotion award of the Friedrich Hölderlin Prize. Her second novel, Magnolia Sleep, was
published in 2011.
Eva Baronsky
Herr Mozart wacht auf
Herr Mozart Wakes Up
Novel. 350 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2009, July
Rights sold to 11 countries
7
Literary Fiction
Women’s fates are always
decided by others
One seemingly normal October day, a journalist friend stood at Michèle Minelli’s
door with a box in his hand. He explained that the box contained material that was
just waiting to be written. After he left, Michèle Minelli did what she had to do.
She opened the box and dove into the tragic case of Frieda Keller, and an egregious
1904 judicial scandal that polarised Switzerland and brought the women’s rights
movement onto the scene.
When Frieda’s employer blocks the door and forces himself on her, she’s lost. Behind
her lies an untroubled childhood in the town of Bischofszell in Thurgau, and before her the year-long humiliation of an unwanted pregnancy. In up-and-coming St.
Gallen, she can disappear in the anonymity of the city, hiding her child at a nursery
school. But since the boy isn’t allowed to stay there, and she can’t care for him, she
gradually is captivated by a dark plan. In desperation, she kills the boy and falls into
the wheels of a merciless justice system that places all blame on the woman, while
her rapist goes unpunished.
Michèle Minelli
Die Verlorene
A Woman Lost
Die Geschichte der Frieda Keller
The Frieda Keller Story
Novel. 440 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2015, April
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS :
Michèle Minelli, was born in 1968 in Zurich. She is the author of several non-fiction works about Switzerland as a country of asylum, as well as a travelogue and
the novel Adeline, Green and Blue. In 2012, her sublime family saga The Restless was
published by Aufbau. She has received various prizes, worked as a documentary
filmmaker and is a professor of creative writing in Zurich.
8
Literary Fiction
»The big wide world
is here or nowhere.«
Falsely accused of arson, abandoned by family and friends and it’s already summer:
Ernesto Schmitt – he has his father’s passion for Che Guevara and obscure family
ties to Argentina to thank for his name – just wants to do his community service in
a retirement home until he can finally get away. There’s nothing he hates as much as
the boring flat land. But then a visitor is standing in front of his door: Uncle Alfonso
Schmitt y Wagner from Argentina, and with him Astor Garcilaso de la Luz y Parra,
an awe-inspiring purebred dog with a big heart. As no taxi driver wants to transport
this beast, only Ernesto can accomplish the mission of getting him to an important
dog show. Together, the three go on an odyssey through the wilds of Germany.
Sabrina Janesch
Tango für einen Hund
Tango for a Dog
Novel. 303 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2014, July
Strangers become friends, shepherds become valiant gauchos, the Luneburg Heath
becomes an enormous prairie. A thrilling story of the road complete with man’s best
friend, and a declaration of love for the countryside.
Sabrina Janesch, born 1985, studied creative writing, cultural journalism and
­Polish language and literature. For her novel Katzenberge, she was awarded the
Mara Cassens Prize for the best debut, the Nicolas Born Debut Prize and the Anna
Seghers Prize. Her second novel, Ambra, was published in 2012.
»Through the power of humor, the novel creates a nuanced picture of our contemporary society.« Jury of the Literary Foundation of the State of Lower
Saxony
»›Tango for a Dog‹ is lighthearted, funny and has just the right pinch of profundity
– a perfect novel for the summer.« NDR Kultur
Selected for New Books in German
S E L E C T E D P R E V I O U S P U B L I C AT I O N :
Sabrina Janesch
Katzenberge
Cat Mountains
Novel. 304 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2010, July
RIGHTS SOLD :
Sweden (Thorén & Lindskog)
Italy (Gran Via)
Winner of the Mara Cassens Prize 2010
Winner of the Nicolas Born Debut Prize 2011
»I hope this book finds many readers.« günter grass
9
Popular Fiction
A melody that changed a life and
the magic of a new love
Juliette has just gotten out of a relationship that she thought was true love. Now all
she wants is to restore furniture in peace. But then she loses the lease to her beloved
workshop, and her capricious Aunt Manon, whom she hasn’t seen for years, surprises her by showing up in Paris and monopolising her time. When Gérard walks into
her life, it shows her that love is worth fighting for.
Manon, the worldly, charismatic chansonnière returns to Paris after forty years –
the city where she met the love of her life. In Paris in the 60s, she meets Jean-Claude.
For both of them, it is the one great, true love. When they make music together,
somehow the world is transformed. They become stars as a performing couple, but
no one can know of their love – Jean-Claude is engaged. And the family of JeanClaude’s fiancée saved his parents from being deported to Germany during the war.
Natalie Simon is the pseudonym of the authors Tania Schlie and Katrin Traoré.
Tania Schlie writes novels, as well as books about art and art history, and she works
as a freelance editor. In addition to her work as an author, Katrin Traoré works at
a foundation. They have been friends since university and spent a year in Paris at
the same time. That’s when they fell in love with the city. And even back then, they
were crazy about beautiful love stories. The Song of the Blue Moon is their first novel
written together.
Natalie Simon
Das Lied des blauen Mondes
The Song of the Blue Moon
Novel. 304 pp.
atb. Paperback
2015, June
As romantic as a walk
along the Seine –
a mesmerising love story!
10
Popular Fiction
The story of an exhilarating
Scandinavian road trip
Greta, Cassady and the Half-Belgian Guy lead tranquil lives, really. Adventure? Unlikely. That is, until the three of them set out at the spur of the moment for Sweden.
Their only piece of luggage is an enormous wooden box. It was left in front of Greta’s
door, sealed and addressed to two elderly people with whom she spent the happiest
days of her childhood. Throw it in the cellar? No way! The two of them mean far too
much to her, and so she decides to bring them the box.
They encounter their first difficulties on the ferry, and their trip unravels into a real
adventure at the end of which the Half-Belgian Guy becomes a hero and takes the
plunge, Greta finally opens up to love and Cassady faces a battle with a rotten kebab
and his grumpy father-in-law.
When the three finally reach their destination, they meet the two old people, who
are over-joyed that Greta has come back after all these years. And after a long night
of memories, they finally learn the secret of what’s in the box…
Florian Beckerhoff was born in Zurich and grew up in Bonn. He completed his
doctorate in literature only to decide he would rather work as a language teacher,
museum custodian and copywriter – or travel far north with two friends in search
of adventure. Today he lives with his family in Berlin.
Florian Beckerhoff
Drei nach Norden
Northward Bound
Novel. 288 pp.
Rütten & Loening. Hardcover
2015, March
P R E V I O U S P U B L I C AT I O N S :
Florian Beckerhoff
Ein Sofa voller Frauen
A Sofa Full of Women
Novel. 256 pp.
atb. Paperback
2014, March
Film adaption in preparation
11
Popular Fiction
Every cloud has a silver lining
Heather Arend is sure that she has the most embarrassing job in the world. Armed
with a gigantic bouquet, she stands in front of the most exclusive house in Cologne,
dressed as a pig, ready to rattle off a moronic poem to the inhabitant. And all of that
because her floral shop offers a special congratulation service. The journalist Nils
Danenberg doesn’t seem very impressed by the display though. He opens up to her
and seems extremely weary – weary of life, in fact. Or at least that’s what Heather thinks, and she embarks on an extensive rescue mission. During the course of
which, she notices that she likes this Nils; she likes him a lot – suddenly Heather is
in love and Nils is annoyed. His life is chaotic enough as it is: his father-in-law (for
now) is embroiled in a construction scandal, his neurotic wife (for now) wants to
make up with him and his career as a journalist is at risk. But Heather doesn’t care
about any of that, love makes you want to take risks.
Nikola Hotel
Jetzt oder Nils
Never say Heather
Novel. 288 pp.
atb. Paperback
2015, March
Uproariously funny, gutsy and with a fine sense for the complicated moments in a
woman’s life, in her new novel Nikola Hotel relates the story of Heather the florist
and her misfortunes in love.
Nikola Hotel was born in 1978 in Bonn, the younger of two girls. As a kid, she
wandered through the woods and built dams in creeks. She started writing her first
short stories when she was still in school. Today she works as a freelance author and
lives with her husband and three sons in Hennef.
Never say never, Heather!
12
Popular Fiction
Meatballs for breakfast
Charlotte always did everything right: she’s a doctor with an amazing job, an
­amazing apartment, amazing friends – but unfortunately no husband. And she’s
39! The situation is getting desperate. Her birthday itself becomes a scene of sorrow.
Ellen Berg
Ich will es doch auch!
I Want It, Too!
Novel. 304 pp.
atb. Paperback
2014, November
Then suddenly Uwe appears, an attractive but rather rough-hewn plumber. That
doesn’t work at all. Oh, yes it does! Charlotte falls head over heels in love with his
stunning smile and his unconventional habits: meatballs for breakfast, dancing in
the park in the rain and playing pool in dark, exciting bars. Charlotte feels light and
free like a teenager – she is overjoyed, while her friends and family are horrified.
What on earth are you doing with him? He’s completely below you! That can’t last.
Bestsellers List Top 20:
4 Weeks!
Sharp-tongued, funny and with a fine sense for her characters, Ellen Berg explores
the concept of “dating down”. Because in this relationship, social conflict is guaranteed – and not just with Charlotte’s best friends.
P R E V I O U S P U B L I C AT I O N S :
Ellen Berg, born 1969, studied German literature and worked as a tour guide and in
the catering business. Today she lives with her daughter on a small farm in Allgäu.
Rights to previous books have been sold to Poland, the Czech Republic und China.
»Ellen Berg’s humor is wonderfully mean.« cosmopolitan
»A delicious read for autumnal bathing. Relaxing, funny and heart-warming.«
­Rheinische Post
Over 650,000 copies sold
13
Popular Fiction
Make Your Own Luck
In Paris during the 1900 World’s Fair, the young, unhappily love-struck Nanette
finds out about a well-guarded secret burdening her family: when her great-grandparents Leonore and Anton were married in 1823, a jealous friend cursed the couple and prophesied a lifetime of bad luck for them. And it wasn’t just Leonore who
had to deal with cruel blows of fate and be unlucky in love; her daughter Mathilde,
her granddaughter Dora and her great-granddaughter Nanette suffer from the same.
They don’t trust their feelings, and their marriages fail. Until Nanette consciously
decides that it’s time to take her life in her own two hands. She learns how important it is to understand and respect her own desires, and recognizes that Luise
doesn’t bear responsibility for the failures of the women in her family – but rather
that each of them is in charge of their own destiny.
Gina Mayer
Leonore und ihre Töchter
Leonore and Her Daughters
Novel. 480 pp.
Rütten & Loening. Hardcover
2014, September
Rights Sold:
Czech World (Euromedia)
A great, atmospheric family epic about love, self-determination and the fate that
tests a mother and her daughter.
S E L E C T E D P R E V I O U S P U B L I C AT I O N :
Gina Mayer, born in 1965, worked as a journalist and screenwriter before her debut
as an author. Aufbau also publishes her Lemons in the Moonlight and My Sister’s Song.
Mayer works and lives with her family in Düsseldorf.
Gina Mayer
Das Lied meiner Schwester
My Sister’s Song
Novel. 544 pp.
Rütten & Loening. Hardcover
2010, July
»Gripping, insightful, and meticulously researched.« Rheinische Post
14
Popular Fiction
Two strangers in Venice
Alice Breuer thinks she’s hit the jackpot: she’s going to Venice to work as an au-pair.
A dream comes true for her, but unfortunately the Scarpa family has other plans.
Alice isn’t just supposed to take care of the two boys, Giorgio and Frederico, but also
to manage the whole household. At least she has a wonderful view from her room in
the attic: across hundreds of rooftops to the Canale della Giudecca, the San Giorgio
Maggiore church, all the way to the lagoon. Since she has no free time to speak of,
she can only enjoy the city at night. That’s when she meets a mysterious man who
lives nearby. Tobia is an American – and he’s blind. Alice falls in love with him without realizing what she’s getting into. Finally she begins to realize that her well-being
is in danger…
A young German woman in Venice in search of happiness and a man who has lost
his sight. A fateful meeting against a fairy-tale backdrop.
Valerie Bielen, born 1971 in Munich, was initiated into Venetian society as a young
woman and experienced the life and rhythms of the city over a period of years. After
university, she worked in New York, Amsterdam, London and Locarno in various
sales and marketing positions. She currently lives with her husband and children
in Basel.
Valerie Bielen
Nur mit deinen Augen
Only with Your Eyes
Novel. 320 pp.
atb. Paperback
2014, December
Sample translation available
The story of a great love
in the enchanting city
of Venice.
15
Crime/Thriller
A crime novel with
the international flair of Monaco
The chaos of a Formula 1 race in Monaco: while the drivers speed around the track,
a gruesome murder rocks the idyllic world of the principality.
The wife of a Formula 1 driver is brutally killed with a hammer. The suspect is a
young woman who has been following the driver for some time. But was the stalker
actually capable of killing in cold blood, out of jealousy? The principality is in an
uproar.
Police superintendent Henry Valeri isn’t too pleased when his new colleague Coco
Dupont is put on the case too. She has other problems…Together they investigate
the Formula 1 case, and become entangled in a tightly woven web of intrigue and
schemes worth millions that pull them further and further into danger.
Jule Gölsdorf is a moderator at n-tv and the Hessian Broadcasting Corporation.
Before that, she was a journalist and the face of the ZDF children’s news show logo!,
which was awarded the German Television Prize in 2012. The author researched the
Principality of Monaco for months for her first novel, learning about its police force
and getting a behind-the-scenes look at its Formula 1 racing.
Jule Gölsdorf
Mörderisches Monaco
Murderous Monaco
Novel. 320 pp.
atb. Paperback
2015, March
»Formula 1 has loads of space for crime literature. Enough intrigues smolder in the
background.« Kai Ebel
»A fresh new voice – and she knows how to tell a story. Wonderful.« Klaus-Peter Wolf
16
Crime/Thriller
Mysterious, exciting,
philosophical!
Alice is stubborn and brilliant, a devotee of the philosopher Wittgenstein, with
whom she occasionally speaks. She has to find her place at a new school, where she’s
treated like an outsider. When someone finds a corpse while walking through the
bog, at first only one archaeologist is interested in the discovery, and soon there’s
talk of a new Oetzi. But then Alice finds out that the body isn’t from the Stone Age,
but rather was dropped there twenty or thirty years ago. Its hands were bound and
the body strangely mutilated.
Christian Buder
Der Tote im Moor
The Body in the Bog
Thriller. 336 pp.
atb. Paperback
2015, August
Lisa Bork, her only friend at school, is absent one day – the day her father is murdered. For the police, there is no doubt that Lisa killed her father with a knife. But
she doesn’t say a word to anyone and is diagnosed with schizophrenia and put in an
institution. Alice doesn’t believe that Lisa killed her father. To save her, she must find
out who really committed the murder.
Christian Buder born 1968, studied business management and then philosophy in
Marburg, Paris and Chicago. As a freelance author and journalist, he writes articles
for Die Zeit and other magazines. He currently lives in Memmingen. The Body in the
Bog is his second novel.
P R E V I O U S P U B L I C AT I O N :
»A challenging pleasure, a true rarity.« Ostthüringer Zeitung
»Philosophical, mystical, exhilarating – a first-class thriller.« Buch Magazin
Christian Buder
Die Eistoten
The Ice Deaths
Thriller. 384 pp.
atb. Paperback
2013, August
17
Non-Fiction
A special kind of garden book:
literary, spirited, full of wisdom
Why do people plant gardens? For Barbara Frischmuth, a garden is the symbol of life
itself. Her own garden taught her to appreciate the vitality of the plant, animal and
human life-forces that flow together there.
Even for a dedicated gardener like Barbara Frischmuth, there comes a day when she
decides to reduce her garden’s size. While she half-heartedly gets rid of some beds,
she thinks of modern advances in neurobiology which have revealed how plants
communicate – with each other and with people – and she catches herself, despite
all of her good intentions, buying seedlings again. Because doesn’t an aching back
sometimes make you happier than having it easy in old age? You have to be able to
dedicate yourself to something to be happy, she realises. And the garden is the perfect place for it. When Barbara Frischmuth talks about the irresistibility of a garden,
it’s always with one eye on the wonderful variety of the garden itself.
Barbara Frischmuth
Der unwiderstehliche Garten
Eine Beziehungsgeschichte
The Irresistible Garden
The Story of a Relationship
Illustrated by Melanie Gebker
Non-Fiction. 240 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2015, February
Babara Frischmuth was born in 1941 and lives in Altausee (Steiermark). Her most
recent publications include the novels The Summer Anna Disappeared, Forget Egypt
and Where We’re From, as well as Weasel, Rose, Finch and Louse, the third of her literary garden books.
Melanie Gebker was born in 1976 in Ahaus, and studied visual arts and painting
in the Netherlands. She works as a freelance graphic designer in Berlin, where her
works can regularly be seen at exhibitions
»Reading and looking at her book is as refreshing as an afternoon on a garden bench.«
Marie Claire
18
Non-Fiction
Watch out for men whose bellies
jiggle when they laugh!
A culinary and cultural voyage of discovery through the Middle Kingdom. The journalist
Ruth Fend traveled through China, on the trail of delicacies, taking on dishes that, for a
western palette, are rather suspect.
As a passionate connoisseur of unusual food, after she loses her job as a correspondent,
Ruth Fend decides to learn how to cook in China. After searching for instructors, she travels through the land, takes a look in the wok of a little southwestern family restaurant,
gets a rich Beijing manager as her cooking partner and takes a tour of the finest noodles
in China with a noodle master. In this confounding land, where everything traditional
has been placed in question by the cultural revolution and rapid industrialisation, in
which dissidents face death sentences, cooking and eating together is for many people
an opportunity to reflect on time-honoured traditions, and at the same time it is a sign
of pride in the present.
Ruth Fend was born in 1979 and studied international relations in Geneva and Boston.
From 2011 to 2013, she was the correspondent for the Financial Times Germany in Beijing. Today she is the editor-in-chief of a business magazine and lives in Berlin.
Ruth Fend
Wok ‘n‘ Roll
Wie ich kochen lernen wollte
und China entdeckte
Wok ‘n‘ Roll
How I Learned How to Cook
and Explored China
Non-Fiction. 320 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2015, February
»Of course you know the Cantonese eat everything
that flies except for airplanes,
everything that runs except for cars,
everything with four feet except for chair and tables.«
19
Biography & Memoir
»Tocotronic has demonstrated how
to attain immortality within your
own lifetime.« Rolling Stone
For the Tocotronic Chronicles, the band opened its extensive archives for the first
time, offering up a private perspective on the quartet’s twenty-plus years of creative
work. With over one thousand images, ranging from unpublished photos and sketches to concert flyers, merchandise to facsimiles of reviews by all of the best-known
critics from newspapers and the music press, as well as exclusive interviews with the
band and their associates, the book presents a unique panorama of German music
history.
In his writings about each album, the pop critic Jens Balzer succeeds in evoking the
significance of the works, and at the same time tracing the development of the social
discourse and German subculture of the time.
ocotron
Photo: T
ic
Jens Balzer is pop culture editor and interim culture
editor at the Berliner Zeitung; he is also a columnist
for Rolling Stone.
Martin Hossbach, Jens Balzer
Die Tocotronic Chroniken
The Tocotronic Chronicles
Non-Fiction. 336 pp.
Blumenbar. Hardcover
2015, April
»Until Tocotronic came onto the scene rock music was once again
breathing its last.« Süddeutsche Zeitung
Martin Hossbach is the musical curator of the Foreign Affairs festival of the Berliner Festspiele, and the
Pop Culture festival at Berghain. He works as a journalist for Spex and Travel Almanac, has a music label,
and is a musical consultant for film directors.
20
Biography & Memoir
NENA. THE BAND. THE BOOK.
They created the soundtrack for an entire generation: the legendary band NENA. Even
today, everyone can sing along to their greatest hits. 99 Red Balloons was a number-one
hit world-wide, and Only Dreamed still guarantees a full dance floor. The popularity of
the lead singer, Nena, has continued uninterrupted for decades, through numerous hit
albums and her appearances on the talent show Voice of Germany.
Rolf Brendel, founding member and drummer, tells the story of the band NENA – from
its beginnings in Hagen to recording their first album in the Kreuzberg factory owned by
Jim Rakete to their ascent into the canon of Neue Deutsche Welle. With many previously
unpublished photos from the eighties, because this decade would have been unthinkable
without Nena, peg-top trousers, and shoulder pads.
Thirty years of pop history are brought to life in many anecdotes and plentiful photos.
A must for all fans!
ri
Photo: p
vat / A rc
hiv Rolf
Rolf Brendel
Nena
Geschichte einer Band
Nena
The Story of a Band
Non-Fiction. 304 pp.
Blumenbar
Hardcover
2014, October
»In 1982 we bought ourselves cars using the advance
Brendel
Rolf Brendel, born in Hagen in 1957, met and fell in love
with Gabriele Susanne Kerner (alias Nena) in 1977. In 1981,
they founded the band NENA. With their numerous hits,
they toured through Europe and all the way to Japan. After
the band broke up in 1987, he studied drumming in Los Angeles. Today he lives in Cloppenburg, plays in the cross-over
band Peter und der Rolf, and teaches drumming and music.
from our first record deal, to give ­ourselves the feeling that we were
really rock stars.« Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen
21
Biography & Memoir
The first biography of
the Mann family
The history of this legendary family is a wellspring of exemplary curricula vitae,
a panorama of fascinating figures which illustrate the fates of humanity in the
20th century.
Manfred Flügge, a notable expert on the Mann family history, has written a panorama that spans a century in life of the celebrated literary clan, which he uses
to illustrate the intellectual, political and cultural development of Germany to the
present. Within the history of this family unfolds that of all Germany: full of contradictions and suffering, glamor and glory, mistakes and sonderwege, achievements
and cultural heritage.
They are the perfect model for understanding the society and history of Germany
and its position in the world, and in many ways they serve as a lens through which
the Germans’ characteristics and tendencies can be better understood.
Manfred Flügge, was born in 1946 and studied Romance languages and literature
and history in Münster and Lille. He has published numerous books, most recently
the much-acclaimed biographies The Four Lives of Martha Feuchtwanger and Stéphane
Hessel – A Happy Rebel appeared from Aufbau. He has won various awards, including the European Literary Prize of Cognac. He lives as a freelance author and translator in Berlin.
Manfred Flügge
Das Jahrhundert der Manns
The Mann Century
Non-Fiction. 352 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2015, May
»I believe that there was never a more significant, original or interesting family in Germany
than the Manns.« Marcel Reich-Ranicki
22
Biography & Memoir
The female face of
power in Prussia
The history of Prussia has always been fascinating. It is a military tradition, as well
as an artistic and cultural treasure trove. Now for the first time, it is told from the
perspective of the women of the House of Hohenzollern.
No other dynasty shaped the fate of Germany as the Hohenzollern family did. Under
their aegis, a barren territory became a major European power named Prussia, with
enormous military clout, but also tolerance, closeness to its citizens and support for
the sciences and arts. The thing that so impresses us about Prussia today is its cultural legacy: the palaces and parks such as Charlottenburg and Sanssouci; the buildings
designed by Schinkel in the heart of Berlin – theatres, museums and universities.
Christine von Brühl depicts the influence in the court of Hohenzollern wielded by
the women in particular. They married in and arrived as newcomers, bringing energy and new ideas necessary for the cultural development of the country.
Christine von Brühl, was born in 1962 and studied Slavic literature, history and
philosophy in Lublin, Heidelberg and Vienna. Having worked for Die Zeit, Sächsische Zeitung and Das Magazine, today she lives as a freelance author in Berlin. Her
books published with Aufbau include the biography The Prussian Madonna. On the
Trail of Queen Luise.
Christine von Brühl
Anmut im märkischen Sand
Die Frauen der Hohenzollern
Prussian Grace
The Hohenzollern Women
Non-Fiction. 352 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2015, March
»I must grant the strings
of my soul a bit of rest each day
so that they maintain the proper tone and resonance.«
Queen Louise of Prussia
23
Biography & Memoir
The Jew with the Swastika
Lorenz S. Beckhardt was raised Catholic. It’s only as an adult that he learns about his
Jewish heritage. As he begins to research, he discovers a dramatic German-Jewish
family history, as well as a photo of his grandfather, Fritz. He returned from World
War I as the most highly decorated Jew, and had his fighter plane decorated with a
sun symbol for good luck. After 1933, Fritz Beckhardt (by then a successful businessman) was incarcerated for “racial defilement”, but with the help of his old squadron
buddy Hermann Göring, he was released from Buchenwald and could emigrate with
his wife. His son Kurt and daughter Hilde arrived safely in England via the Kindertransport. Other relatives were deported and murdered.
But in 1950, the family dared to return to the land of their persecution. Lorenz S.
Beckhardt depicts the results of the silence and suppression, and the difficult new
beginning in their old homeland, the daily humiliations and the demoralizing fight
to recover their old belongings. A moving book about the survival of a Jewish family
in Germany – not just before 1933, but also after 1945.
Lorenz S. Beckhardt was born in 1961 and holds degrees in both chemistry and
journalism. He is an author and an editor for the ARD, WDR and 3sat broadcasting services, working as a foreign correspondent in Europe and the Middle East.
He researched his grandfather’s history for the WDR documentary The Jew with the
Swastika (2007).
Lorenz S. Beckhardt
Der Jude mit dem Hakenkreuz
The Jew with the Swastika
Non-Fiction. 480 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2014, October
Selected for New Books in German
RIGHTS SOLD :
Italy (Newton Compton)
»Papa, Hitler will lose the war. … we’ll come back;
even after these years,
there will be Jews living on the Rhine
for a thousand years.«
24
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