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BEWARE THE WOMAN de Megan Abbott

From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Megan Abbott, an eerie and prescient novel about a family outing gone terribly awry.

BEWARE THE WOMAN
by Megan Abbott
‎ Putnam, June 2023
(via Writers House)

HoneyI just want you to have everything you ever wanted. 
That’s what Jacy’s mom always told her. And Jacy felt like she finally did. Newly married and with a baby on the way, Jacy and her new husband Jed embark on their first road trip together to visit his father, Doctor Ash, in Michigan’s far-flung Upper Peninsula. The moment they arrive in the cozy cottage in the lush woods, Jacy feels bathed in love by the warm and hospitable Doctor Ash, if less so by his house manager, the enigmatic Mrs. Brandt.
But their Edenic first days take a turn when Jacy has a health scare. Swiftly, vacation activities are scrapped, and all eyes are on Jacy’s condition. At the same time, whispers about Jed’s long-dead mother and complicated family history seem eerily to be impeding upon the present. As the days pass, Jacy begins to feel trapped in the cottage, her every move surveilled, her body under the looking glass. But are her fears founded or is it paranoia, or cabin fever, or—as is suggested to her—a stubborn refusal to take necessary precautions? The dense woods surrounding the cottage are full of dangers, but are the greater ones inside?

Megan Abbott is the award-winning author of ten novels, including Give Me Your Hand, You Will Know MeThe FeverDare Me, and The End of Everything. She received her PhD in literature from New York University. Her writing has appeared in The New York TimesThe Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times MagazineThe Guardian, and The Believer. She’s the co-creator and executive producer of USA’s adaptation of Dare Me and was a staff writer on HBO’s David Simon show The Deuce. Abbott lives in New York City.

FRANKIE de Joachim Gutsch & Maxim Leo

A cat explains the world to us: a soulful and funny novel with depth and little philosophical lessons about life. For readers of Matt Haig and Fredrik Backman.

FRANKIE
by Joachim Gutsch & Maxim Leo
‎ Penguin Germany, March 2023

Imagine you’re looking for the meaning of life – and end up concussing a cat with a pepper mill instead…
Richard Gold has planned everything down to the last detail. Nothing will go wrong. Today’s the day he’ll take his own life. Or so he thinks. Because what Gold hasn’t counted on is that, instead of killing himself, he’ll acquire a new flatmate called Frankie. Frankie contributes nothing to the rent, keeps him up all night, wakes him in the morning, and otherwise ruthlessly exploits his hospitality. Nevertheless, they slowly become friends, at a time when Gold needs a friend more than anything…

Jochen Gutsch is a reporter at Spiegel magazine and a columnist at the Berliner Zeitung, and has won the Theodor Wolff Prize and the Henri Nannen Prize.
Maxim Leo is a columnist at the Berliner Zeitung, and has also won the Theodor Wolff Prize, as well as the European Book Prize. His book Red Love has been translated into numerous languages.
Together, they have conquered the bestseller lists with their hugely popular books
Es ist nur eine Phase, Hase (« It’s just a phase, honey »), and Du bleibst mein Sieger, Tiger (« You’ll always be my winner, darling »), and their joint stage shows regularly sell out.

AUFRUHR DER MEERESTIERE de Marie Gamillscheg

On fathers and daughters – the tale of an impossible relationship.

AUFRUHR DER MEERESTIERE
[An Uprising of Sea Creatures]
by Marie Gamillscheg
Luchterhand/Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe, September 2022

Luise is intelligent, Luise is independent, Luise is an island. She has also gained a reputation as an excellent marine biologist. Her specialty is the sea walnut, a ghostly illuminated jellyfish living in the dark waters of the oceans. When Luise is asked to go to Graz for a project with a famous zoo, she says yes right away. But Graz is the town she grew up in and the town where her estranged father, who is ill, still lives – and where the silence between them began, long ago…
Marie Gamillscheg writes compellingly and vividly about the process of freeing ourselves from our childhood, our body, and the rules that we believe to be our own – but which others have determined for us. At the same time, this novel is an attempt to describe the inherent impossibility of father-daughter relationships.

Marie Gamillscheg, born in Graz in 1992, lives and works in Berlin, freelancing as a journalist and contributing to ZEIT Campus and other media. She was awarded the city of Graz literature promotion prize in 2015 and the New German Fiction Prize. In 2016 she took part in the Klagenfurt Literature Course and was awarded a working stipend by the Berlin Senate. Her works have been published in many magazines and anthologies. Her novel All That Shines topped the ORF list of best books, was nominated for the aspekte Literature Prize and won the Austrian Book Prize for the Best Debut Novel in 2018.

EINE FAST PERFEKTE DEBÜTANTIN de Hannah Conrad

True love and scandals in nineteenth-century Munich…

EINE FAST PERFEKTE DEBÜTANTIN
[An Almost Perfect Debutante]
The Lily Palace Saga, vol. 1
by Hannah Conrad
‎ Heyne/Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe, November 2022

Munich, 1827. Johanna von Seybach has moved from Königsberg to the magnificent Lily Palace, her uncle’s family seat – where an exciting season awaits her! Even before her official debut, it looks like a proposal from the eligible bachelor Friedrich Veidt is all but certain. But then Johanna has an unguarded moment of passion, and her reputation is suddenly in tatters. Friedrich drops her, and she’s left broken-hearted. Will anyone want to marry her, after such a scandal? Then she meets Alexander von Reuss at a glittering masked ball. That same evening, they grow closer than they should, experiencing a sensuous moment of surrender. But Johanna’s scandalous past is making such waves that even true love may not be enough to save her.

Hannah Conrad has already published many popular novels across various genres. She studied German and cultural journalism, and has won several awards, including the DeLiA Book Prize, the Selfpublisher prize and a short-story prize. She uses her extensive travels to research her novels, and is at home in several German cities.

ZUR SEE de Dörte Hansen

An intelligent, warm-hearted novel about an island in the grip of change, about ancient laws that have lost their meaning, and about upheaval and deliverance.

ZUR SEE
[To the Sea]
by Dörte Hansen
Penguin Germany, September 2022

The ferry takes an hour for the crossing from the mainland to the little North Sea island – sometimes longer, depending on how rough the sea is. The Sander family has lived in one of the island’s two villages for nearly 300 years. Hanne has raised three children, while her husband has given up both his family and his seafaring life. Now her oldest son has lost his captain’s licence, is plagued by premonitions and tidal data, and is waiting for the storm to end all storms. Her daughter Eske looks after veteran sailors and widows at the old people’s home. She fears the influx of tourists more than the sea, because the tourists are turning the island’s culture into mere folklore. Only Henrik, Hanne’s youngest son, is at peace with himself. He is the first man in the family never to have dreamt of going to sea, and instead spends his time collecting flotsam on the beach. Over the course of one year, the Sander family’s life is irrevocably changed – by an almost unnoticeable breeze that eventually grows into a full-blown storm.

Dörte Hansen, born in 1964, has a degree in linguistics. She has been an editor at NDR and written for both radio and print. Her debut novel This House Is Mine was voted the German Independent Booksellers’ Book of the Year in 2015, and was the Spiegel’s 2015 bestseller of the year. Her second novel, Mittagsstunde (« Midday Hour ») appeared in 2018, was also the Spiegel’s bestseller of the year, and won both the Rheingau Literature Prize and the Grimmelshausen Literature Prize. Both novels have been translated into numerous languages.