Fall 2014 - Aufbau Verlag

Foreign Rights Guide
Fall 2014
CONTENT:
Literary Fiction Blumenbar
Crime/Thriller
Christine Koschmieder
»Schweinesystem«
3
Sean Berger
»Stirb, Schwesterlein, stirb«
PeterLicht
»Lob der Realität«
4
Maria Dries
»Der Kommissar von Barfleur«
Freda Wolff
»Schwesterlein muss sterben«
Literary Fiction Aufbau
Biography & Memoir
12
Rolf Brendel
»Nena. Geschichte einer Band«
18
13
Lorenz S. Beckhardt
»Der Jude mit dem Hakenkreuz«
19
14
Wilhelm von Sternburg
»Lion Feuchtwanger. Die Biographie« 20
Anna Gmeyner
»Manja. Ein Roman um fünf Kinder« 5
Non-Fiction
Kathrin Groß-Striffler
»Zum Meer«
6
Peter Schaar
»Überwachung Total«
15
Sabrina Janesch
»Tango für einen Hund«
7
Sonya & Yury Winterberg
»Kleine Hände im großen Krieg«
16
Egmont R. Koch
»Lizenz zum Töten«
17
Popular Fiction
Ellen Berg
»Ich will es doch auch«
8
Gina Mayer
»Leonore und ihre Töchter«
9
Valerie Bielen
»Nur mit deinen Augen«
10
Hans Meyer zu Düttingdorf
»Das Bandoneon«
11
Roswitha Quadflieg
»Neun Monate«
21
Uwe-Karsten Heye
»Die Benjamins«
22
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
PLEASE CONTACT:
Inka Ihmels
Foreign Rights Manager
Tel: +49-30-28394-123
[email protected]
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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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.
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
»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
3
REALITY DESERVES OUR PRAISE  IT’S
COMPLEX, IT’S BANAL, IT’S RADIANT. AND
AS FLEETING AS OUR LIVES.
In his new book, PeterLicht illuminates our social realities. In literary miniatures, absurd everyday situations and cascading monologues, he lends his own interpretations to
rhythms of the world as it hurtles by, asking himself the truly relevant questions:
What do you envision when you say »I«? Do you still exist when you’re asleep? Do you
believe that energy can disappear? Have you ever abolished yourself? How many times
over the course of your life? Did you have one unique thought today? Would you like to
give it a name? Do you believe that things become less true the more often you say them?
Or more true? Do you believe that your dreams linger on? Do they collect somewhere –
inside you, or somewhere else? Where could they be?
In his work, artist PeterLicht moves between text, music, pop, art, social sculpture, capitalism and bargain shop aesthetics, where ultimately what should emerge is beautiful.
Maybe.
hrist
Foto: C
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PeterLicht
Lob der Realität
Praise for Reality
Book. 272 pp.
Blumenbar. Hardcover
2014, October
»Refreshing for the mind and heart, dazzlingly anarchic!« ALBERT OSTERMAIER
ps
PeterLicht is an indie-pop musician who has released five
albums. For many years, he has also been active in many prominent German theatres as a playwright and director. His
book The Story of My Assessment at the Dawn of the Third
Millennium received the Audience’s Choice Award and the
3sat Prize at the Ingeborg Bachmann competition in Klagenfurt in 2008.
»Wonderful folly, a cheerful apocalypse … grandiose literature.« KLAUS NÜCHTERN
»This is an author with great delicacy … comedy and pain, insanity and hysteria … I’m very
happy that this author shifted from the world of music to literature.« IJOMA MANGOLD
4
Literary Fiction
Manja was so close to them,
there was no room for hatred yet
Anna Gmeyner tells the story of a friendship as poetic as it is touching. A story that
begins with one night in the spring of 1920, on which five children were conceived.
Franz, Heini, Karl and Harry are really worlds apart, and yet they become friends,
bound by their heartfelt affection for Manja – the girl from a poor eastern Jewish
family with an exuberantly active imagination. Life’s high point for the five of them
are the hours spent at a piece of waste ground with a crumbling wall at the city limits, where they’ve created a world of their own. Then political changes begin to cast
their shadows on the friendship. All five are ready to fight for their relationships,
for Manja, but in the end, they are prisoners of their era, which tragically destroys
Manja. And the boys’ hope for a humane future is destroyed along with her.
Authentically and hauntingly, Anna Gmeyner documents how National Socialist
policy worked its way into society and aimed to dissolve personal ties.
Anna Gmeyner, born 1902 in Vienna, was a member of the literary avant-garde
in the 1920s. She began working in Paris in 1932, where she wrote screenplays.
After her second marriage, to the Russian Jewish philosopher Jascha Murdoch, she
emigrated to London. There, she created the novel Manja which was published by
Querido in Amsterdam in 1938. Gmeyner died in 1991 in York.
Anna Gmeyner
Manja. Ein Roman um fünf Kinder
Manja. A Novel About Five Children
Novel. 544 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2014, October
English translation available
RIGHTS SOLD :
English / UK (Persephone)
Netherlands (Cossee)
»Poetry and documentation of the times in a mixture that both moves and enlightens.«
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
»A powerful novel that works at an imaginative as well as an historical level.«
Jewish Renaissance, London
»Anna Gmeyner›s writing is infused throughout with humanity and understanding.«
The Jewish Chronicle, London
»The character Manja exudes a kind of magic. It almost seems as if Gmeyner wanted to
personify art itself in Manja – and thereby represent how the National Socialist regime
abused it.« Beate Tröger, FAZ
5
Literary Fiction
»I don’t want to be satisfied,
I want to be happy«
Saskia doesn’t want an orderly »shitty life«. She’s like a nomad. A nomad with a
child, one who she loves but also curses. The more inescapably and deeper Saskia
falls into her German November depression, the more she romanticizes her memories of Brazil, the sun, the sea, lightheartedness and sex. She wants to be a perfect
mother for her baby, who she’s raising alone. But how can she escape her own lack
of self-control when she’s sleep-deprived, bored and lonely, and when she still wants
to experience so much? She wants the best for Mia, she wants to be a good mother,
and yet she can’t stand bearing the responsibility day and night. In this vicious circle
of exhaustion and lust for life, Saskia makes a disturbing, radical decision.
With masterful language, the author creates the spirited inner world of a young
woman who doesn’t want a conformist life. A story of excessive demands, failed
motherhood and an existential decision, told completely from the perspective of a
nearly child-like, hedonistic, eager heroine. An intensive novel, that neither sugarcoats nor judges, but which resonates deeply.
Kathrin Groß-Striffler
Zum Meer
To the Sea
Novel. 252 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2014, July
All rights available except for
Scandinavian countries,
the Netherlands and Greece
»The author reliably opens the family photo album where the pages have been cleanly torn
out.« DIE ZEIT
Kathrin Groß-Striffler, born 1955, studied English and Romance literature in Germany, France and the US. She lives in Jena. She received the Alfred Döblin Prize for
her novel Die Hütte.
6
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.
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 Caseins Prize for the best debut, the Nicolas Born Society 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
Sabrina Janesch
Tango für einen Hund
Tango for a Dog
Novel. 303 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2014, July
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 S :
Sabrina Janesch
Katzenberge
Cat Mountains
Novel. 304 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2010, July
RIGHTS SOLD :
Sweden (Thorén & Lindskog)
Italy (Gran Via)
Winner of the Mara Kassens Prize 2010
Winner of the Nicolas Born Debut Prize 2011
»I hope this book finds many readers.« günter grass
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.
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.
Ellen Berg
Ich will es doch auch!
I Want It, Too!
Novel. 304 pp.
atb. Paperback
2014, November
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 450.000 copies sold
8
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.
A great, atmospheric family epic about love, self-determination and the fate that
tests a mother and her daughter.
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
Leonore und ihre Töchter
Leonore and Her Daughters
Novel. 480 pp.
Rütten & Loening. Hardcover
2014, September
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 S :
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
9
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 come 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.
10
Popular Fiction
The young woman
from Buenos Aires
Tango, passion and a secret that goes undiscovered for nearly 100 years: after her
mother dies, Berlin journalist Christina finds an old postcard from Buenos Aires
that raises a number of questions: questions about her own past, and about things
that have been left unsaid. On the card is an image of a bandoneon, and Christina is
electrified. Has something finally fallen into her hands that will allow her to learn
more about her family? Her search leads her to Argentina, and to the days of the
not-so-golden twenties. Back then a woman from Berlin – her great-grandmother
Emma – accompanied her new husband to South America. Emma lived through her
family’s rise and fall – and fell in love with a bandoneon player, an affair that doesn’t
only change her own life.
Hans Meyer zu Düttingdorf
Das Bandoneon
The Bandoneon
Novel. 512 pp.
Rütten & Loening. Clothbound
2014, March
RIGHTS SOLD :
A touching novel about a young woman from Berlin who seeks her luck in 1920s
Argentina. This piece of German history is woven from a German-Argentinean
family saga.
Hans Meyer zu Düttingdorf was born in 1967 in Bielefeld. He is an actor and musician who has recorded multiple albums. He lives in Berlin.
Spanish World (Ediciones B)
A great family drama about a passionate love,
tango and a secret that remains undiscovered
for nearly a century.
11
Crime/Thriller
The darkest depths of
human nature
Ireland during a cold summer: Gregor Zimmermann wants to take a vacation with
his girlfriend and her daughter Cloe. He wants to finally forget about his twin sister
Kathrin, who was abused and abducted 22 years ago in Switzerland, while he was
left untouched. He still feels guilty that he didn’t save her. For years, he received
antagonizing letters that gave him hope that Kathrin was still alive.
Just at this moment, he encounters the kidnappers again: the woman with the portwine stain on her face and the man with the buck teeth. They also see and recognize him. A deadly game begins, which leads back to Switzerland. The kidnappers
show that they have no mercy, and that murder is nothing out of the usual for them.
Gregor finds himself once again trapped in a nightmare, which he knows only too
well.
An atmospheric, brilliantly written thriller about a vicious abduction, and a dramatic search through the darkest depths of humanity – in others and in ourselves.
Sean Berger, born 1969 in Ireland, moved to a town near Vienna with his Austrian
father in 1983. After breaking off his studies in German literature, he worked as an
English teacher in Berlin and Lucerne, and as a surfing instructor in Durban, South
Africa. Today he lives with his three dogs in southwestern Ireland. Die, Little Sister,
Die is his debut.
Sean Berger
Stirb, Schwesterchen, stirb
Die, Little Sister, Die
Novel. 368 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2014, November
You’re ready to die for your twin sister –
but are you also ready
to kill for her?
12
Crime/Thriller
»Bonjour,
Monsieur Le Commissaire«
Barfleur, Normandy. Former Police Commissioner Philippe Lagarde, alumnus of a
special unit of the French police with a love of Baudelaire and bicycling, really just
wanted to retire here on the ocean, alongside the fishermen, between the oyster
beds and the steep cliffs. Even the apple of his eye – Odette, owner of a gourmet
restaurant – lives here. But then a German student disappears without a trace while
on vacation. His last communication: a postcard from Barfleur. When his worried
parents arrive and move into a vacation home they rent from Lagarde, he begins
to investigate, together with his former colleague and friend Roselin and Roselin’s
assistant. They follow the trail of the missing boy to a lonely island in the Atlantic
called Mimosa Castle.
The new series featuring this investigative team starts with a bang in Normandy, a
rugged and mysterious location.
Maria Dries was born in Erlangen and studied social pedagogy and economics. She
lives with her family in a farmhouse in the idyllic mountains of Franconia, and has
written other regional crime novels.
Maria Dries
Der Kommissar von Barfleur.
Ein Kriminalroman aus der Normandie
The Commissioner of Barfleur.
A Crime Novel from Normandy
Novel. 320 pp.
atb. Paperback
2014, November
Name: Commissaire Philippe Lagarde
Age: 62 and retired
Profession: Former member of a special unit of the
French police
Marital status: Single and in love with Odette
Appearance: Average height, muscular, powerful, friendly face with
sapphire blue eyes
Hobbies: Baudelaire, cooking and bicycling
13
Crime/Thriller
»You have to swim,
or else you’ll die.«
She’s cold. No, she’s freezing. At the same time she can distinctly sense the thin
film of sweat on her brow. The man is tall, at least a head taller than her, and he
moves with a certain light-footedness that betrays the fact that he’s extremely athletic. »Now you’re going to learn how to swim,« he says. »Dear little sister has to be
able to swim, else she’ll die.«
Bergen in Norway. When Aksel casually mentions his stepsister’s murder to his
psychologist, Merette Schulmann, she begins to panic. He’s obviously trying to
frighten her – and immediately asks about her daughter Julia. Julia just moved
into her first apartment and is happy with her new boyfriend. Her friend Marie
from Oslo is going to come visit. But Marie never shows up… Soon Merette learns
that wherever Aksel has been, mysterious water-related deaths have occurred. The
victims were always young women of precisely the same age as his stepsister would
have been. Now she would have been 24 – as old as Julia.
Freda Wolff is the pseudonym of Ulrike Gerold and Wolfram Hänel (both born
1956). They studied German literature in Berlin and worked at various theaters before they began to write together. Today they live and work mainly in Hannover –
for over 20 years they’ve written in the same room, at the same desk.
Freda Wolff
Schwesterlein muss sterben
Little Sister Has To Die
Thriller. 400 pp.
Rütten & Loening. Paperback
2014, March
English sample translation available
RIGHTS SOLD :
Italy (Newton Compton)
Is Merette Schulmann’s
patient really a murderer?
She begins her own investigations…
14
Non-Fiction
Can the Internet still be saved?
The Internet was created as a platform for the unfettered exchange of information,
and as a forum for the free expression of opinions, but increasingly it has degenerated into a global surveillance network. Peter Schaar illustrates that without data
privacy, there is no freedom of opinion, and demonstrates how we can successfully
extract ourselves from the downward spiral of global surveillance.
Edward Snowden was just a messenger: since the terrorist attacks of 2001, secret
services have so thoroughly infiltrated the internet that it shocks even conspiracy
theorists. And it’s not only terrorists and criminals who are caught in the crosshairs
– it’s all of us. Data hunters go after personal information, as well as state, business,
and trade secrets – and the more, the better. Guaranteeing the safety of the western world threatens to transform the internet into a place of complete surveillance.
Peter Schaar explains why this process can only be stopped by a radical change in
behaviour, because without comprehensive protection of our privacy, there can be
no democracy in the information age.
Peter Schaar, born in 1954 in Berlin, studied economics, and has worked in various positions involving data and privacy protection for over 25 years. From 2003 to
2013, he was the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom
of Information. He is the chairman of the European Academy for Freedom of Information and Data Protection.
Peter Schaar
Überwachung total. Wie wir in Zukunft
unsere Daten schützen
Total Surveillance. How to Protect Our
Data in the Future
Non-Fiction. 301 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2014, June
»Some may already be familiar with the individual pieces of Schaar›s dissent, but they take
on a new power when viewed together.« SPIEGEL Online
»The things that makes the book worth reading and recommending are above all the
explanation of which surveillance mechanisms exist beyond the NSA – whether they’re
governmentally, economically or otherwise motivated.« Netzpolitik.org
»Schaar’s book provides a real service by expertly reminding us of forgotten surveillance
mechanisms.« Deutschlandfunk
15
Non-Fiction
»If any ask us why we died, Tell them,
Because our fathers lied.«
rudyard kipling
In the summer of 1914, a war of unheard-of extent changed the world. Millions of
men were recruited by various armies, and millions of women and children stayed
at home alone or joined the streams of refugees flooding through Europe. Some of
the children kept diaries and wrote about their experiences, hopes, fears and joys.
Small Hands in a Big War gives a deeply human insight into life during the First World
War, based upon their diaries, letters and drawings. With testimonies from a great
number of countries including Italy, France, Russia, England, Serbia, Belgium, Poland, the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Jamaica, Palestine, Scandinavia, Australia,
Germany and Austria the scope is an international one. Many children even actively
participated in combat. But even more children experienced war from home, suffered
hunger, grieved for killed and missing family members or lost their homes.
This panorama of the Great War seen through children’s eyes is structured by important historical data. The children’s stories, ordered chronologically reflect the course
of the war as it unfolded.
Kleine
Hände im
Großen Krieg
Yury und Sonya
Winterberg
Kinderschicksale
im Ersten
Weltkrieg
Yury & Sony Winterberg
Kleine Hände im großen Krieg
Small Hands in a Big War
Non-Fiction. 352 pp.
Including several photos, facsimiles,
drawings.
Aufbau. Clothbound
2014, April
RIGHTS SOLD :
Italy (Newton Compton)
Spanish World (Paidós)
Czech Republic (Euromedia)
Turkey (Can)
Netherlands (Walburg Pers)
Including the destinies of Alfred Hitchcock, Simone de Beauvoir,
Anaïs Nin, Marlene Dietrich and Elias Canetti
who experienced the Great War as children.
Yury and Sonya Winterberg have written several books about war and trauma such
as War Children – Memories of a Generation and We are Wolves’ Children – Abandoned
in East Prussia. Yury and Sonya Winterberg live with their children in Dresden. Yury
Winterberg is the main author of the documentary 14 – Diaries from the Great War.
16
Non-Fiction
Murdered by Mossad, CIA & Co.
In the world-wide wars against terrorism, Western governments issue death sentences against suspects – with the possibility of committing deadly mistakes.
On the basis of exclusive sources, Egmont R. Koch reveals the scandalous assassination practices of different nations’ secret services. He examines the politics of targeted killing, and puts them into a historical context. In his book, Koch shows that
it wasn’t only the Stasi and the KGB who ignored statute and law when eliminating
their enemies, but that Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, and the CIA also
violate international law, especially when acting under the pretext of counter-terrorism. License to Kill focuses on the activities of the Mossad and other agencies over the
past decades. It reveals exclusive information that has not appeared in print before,
which the author was able to gain through personal contacts and interviews with
Mossad veterans.
Egmont R. Koch, born in 1950, is one of the most famous investigative journalists
in Germany. In 1978, he caused a sensation with his first book Seveso is Everywhere.
So far, his books have been translated into 12 languages and his investigative TV
documentaries have won numerous awards.
Egmont R. Koch
Lizenz zum Töten
Die Mordkommandos der Geheimdienste
Licence to Kill
Assassination Squads of Secret Services
Across the Globe
Non-Fiction. 320 pp.
Aufbau. Clothbound.
2013, October
RIGHTS SOLD :
Poland (Czarna Owca)
China (Bookzone)
Sharpshooters, bombs, poison and drones:
targeted executions have killed more than 1000 people – without
any kind of trial.
17
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!
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
pri
Photo:
vat / A rc
hiv Rolf
from our first record deal, to give ourselves the feeling that we were
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.
really rock stars.« Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen
18
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
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
»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.«
19
Biography & Memoir
A legendary figure,
cast in a new light
With Jew Süss and The Ugly Duchess, Lion Feuchtwanger became world-famous. The
Nazis forced him into exile, where he completed further important works. Feuchtwanger’s path from feeling like an outsider in his parents’ upper-class Jewish home
in Munich to his career as a bohemian and strident theatre critic to his exile in California as a cosmopolitan world-renowned author mirrors many important aspects
of 20th-century history and literature.
Feuchtwanger’s life was marked by intensive literary work and erotic adventures.
He loved to enlighten and explain, and he was fascinated by the idea of interpreting
history through literature. His democratic and socialist engagement, especially his
report »Moscow, 1937«, have fed the lively debate surrounding his character up to
this day. Because he never publicly distanced himself from the Soviet Union, during
the Cold War, his position in relation to the two ideological fronts was also unclear.
Documents recently made available provide proof that he was no aesthete who had
lapsed into communism, but rather a sceptical optimist whose reflections on power
and the intellect remain relevant.
Wilhelm von Sternburg
Lion Feuchtwanger. Die Biographie
Lion Feuchtwanger. The Biography
Non-Fiction. 543 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2014, June
»Sternberg meticulously follows the writer’s steps. And with the utmost respect.« Münchner
Merkur
»A rich panorama of a life, which reads like an engrossing novel.« Sächsische Zeitung
Wilhelm von Sternburg, born 1939, worked for many years as a print, radio and
television journalist. He has been a freelance writer since 1993. He has made several
films for the ARD broadcasting company and published several books on historical
topics, including biographies of Adenauer, Lessing, Remarque, Anna Seghers and
Arnold Zweig.
»Sternburg’s biography is also particularly valuable because at that time he could still speak
with many eye witnesses. These personal impressions give the work a great vividness.« dpa
20
Biography & Memoir
»A completely personal and very
impressive book.« christoph hein
A moving and unsettling book about a dementia and death. The author’s description
of her mother’s passing is at once disturbing and uplifting. A book that will move
you to laughter and to tears, and which shows that it is possible to find and to give
consolation in despair.
A 92-year-old woman »loses her mind« and prepares to die. Nine months – the
length of a pregnancy – is how long it takes her to reach her goal. Her daughter
accompanies her, listens, takes notes and becomes the chronicler of this strange
journey through no-man’s land, vacillating between curiosity, astonishment, doubt,
tears and laughter. On the way, old certainties lose their stability: What’s »normal«
and what isn’t? Isn’t it also a blessing for the mother, after all of her years of devotion
to the family, children and career, to finally put down the burden of responsibility
once and for all? On their path toward death, mother and daughter grow closer in
completely new ways. A touching book about the beauty of life’s final things.
Roswitha Quadflieg
Neun Monate.
Über das Sterben meiner Mutter
Nine Months. On My Mother’s Death
Non-Fiction. 160 pp.
Aufbau. Hardcover
2014, September
»To incubate death. Is that possible? For my mother,
Roswitha Quadflieg, born 1949 in Zurich, is the daughter of the actor Will Quadflieg and the sister of the actor Christian Quadflieg. She studied art in Hamburg,
and until 2003 she was the owner of the Raamin Press, a printing studio. She has
written numerous novels, essays, radio plays and pieces for the theatre. She lives in
Berlin.
it really did seem to be that way. In any case, a development
occurred, a becoming in all of the withering, for which death
would be redemption and rebirth. For everyone.«
21
Biography & Memoir
The German family of the century
From the world-famous philosopher Walter Benjamin to Hilda Benjamin, aka »Red
Hilde«, the first female minister of justice in the GDR, Uwe-Karsten Heye tells the
story of a German family that reflects the major developments of the 20th century.
Five people, five different fates: Walter Benjamin, philosopher and author. Hilde
Benjamin, vice president of the Supreme Court of the GDR, and maligned as »Red
Hilde«. Her husband Georg Benjamin, communist and doctor, murdered in the
Mauthausen concentration camp, and his sister Dora, social scientist, as a Jew also
driven into exile. And finally, Hilde’s son, Michael Benjamin, professor of law in
Moscow and East Berlin, who struggled with his family history throughout his life.
Based on previously unknown archival material, as well as conversations with the
family’s contemporaries, Heye creates an engaging psychological profile of a German family, correcting some of the distortions about them that arose during the
Cold War.
Uwe-Karsten Heye, born 1940, is a journalist who worked as a speechwriter for
Willy Brandt, as press officer for Gerhard Schröder, and as a writer for the public
broadcasting organizations ARD and ZDF.
Uwe-Karsten Heye
Die Benjamins
The Benjamins
Non-Fiction. 320 pp.
Aufbau. Clothbound
2014, March
RIGHTS SOLD :
Brazil (Geraçao Editorial)
Italy (Sellerio)
Korea (Book World)
»How did a brother’s dream influence his sister-in-law’s acts? Did Walter Benjamin shape the
GDR justice? Uwe-Karsten Heye illuminates the tragic family history of the philosopher.« FAZ
»A grand work that left me breathless from the first to the last page.« Ulrich Wickert
»An astounding, extraordinary and extremely well readable opus. And it’s a page-turner, too.«
Michael Naumann
22
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