Archives de catégorie : Frankfurt 2023 Adult Fiction

ETWAS VERBORGEN SCHÖNES d’Arne Jensen

A novel about living the life you want, inspired by the true story of trans woman Charlotte von Mahlsdorf.

ETWAS VERBORGEN SCHÖNES
(Hidden Beauty)
by Arne Jensen
Heyne/PRH Germany, December 2023

Uckermark, July 2018. On an old estate in the middle of nowhere, ninety-year-old Ottilie Rabe gathers her extended family around her to finalise her will. But when they come together, old wounds are opened. There is one thing from her past which Ottilie knows she must deal with – a terrible secret she has been hiding for decades, and which will change all their lives for ever.

Berlin, 1944. The body of a high-ranking Gestapo officer is found in a flat. He has been battered to death with a hammer. Investigating officer Werner Beltheim is under pressure to solve the case quickly. His prime suspect is the dead man’s daughter, who was found sitting next to the body. Her name is Ottilie Rabe…

Medic and therapist Arne Jensen has always been interested in modern German history and how it has affected the postwar generation. HIDDEN BEAUTY is partly about his specialist subject of how war trauma is passed down through families.

MUNA ODER DIE HÄLFTE DES LEBENS de Terézia Mora

« I know what you want, » he says. « You won’t get it. »

MUNA ODER DIE HÄLFTE DES LEBENS
(Muna, or Half a Life)
by Terézia Mora
Luchterhand Literaturverlag/PRH Germany, August 2023

Muna is about to graduate from high school when she meets Magnus, a French teacher and photographer. She spends the night with him. When the Berlin Wall comes down, he disappears. Seven years later, they meet again – and become a couple. Muna thinks she has found the love of her life. But as soon as they take their first trip together, cracks start showing in their relationship. Over the years the coldness, unpredictability and violence get worse. But Muna isn’t willing to give up.

Terézia Mora, born in 1971 in Sopron, Hungary, has lived in Berlin since 1990. For her stories and novels she was awarded numerous prizes, among others the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, the Kunstpreis Berlin, the Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse, the Deutsche Buchpreis and, in 2018, the Georg Büchner Prize. Her books have been translated into 20 languages. Moreover, Terézia Mora is one of the most distinguished translators from Hungarian.

WILDE MANÖVER de Judith Keller

A glittering novel about two friends who dare to do things differently.

WILDE MANÖVER
(Wild Maneuvers)
by Judith Keller
Luchterhand Verlag/PRH Germany, September 2023

Big changes happen when no one’s looking: this is Keller’s fearless and irresistibly original story about breaking boundaries and an imaginative revolution – a fierce yet tender novel about two women determined to start something new. But how?

Something happened on that warm summer’s night, in the shopping centre car park. A van was pilfered – was it to do with drugs? Vera and Peli are suspected of being involved, but when the police interview them the two young women don’t shed any light on the mystery. On the contrary: there’s a mermaid in a pool, bicycles arranged in a circle on the train tracks, and an abducted horse – it seems that Vera and Peli have committed a whole series of crimes, one more improbable than the next. And so begins an adventurous search for answers in a city at night-time, as well as a quirky examination of our vanishing present.

Judith Keller, born in Switzerland in 1985, studied creative writing in Leipzig and Biel, and qualified as a German language teacher in Berlin and Bogotá. She has also been an editor at the literary journal Edit. She has won honorary awards from the city and canton of Zurich for her story collection « Die Fragwürdigen » (« The Questionable Ones »).

« I have rarely read anything this refreshing, bold and funny. » – Saša Stanišić

DEVOUR de Jazmine Joyner, illustré par Anthony Pugh

In this horror graphic novel, American Gods meets Get Out in a dark retelling of the West African legend of Anansi the Spider.

DEVOUR
by Jazmine Joyner; illustrated by Anthony Pugh
Abrams ComicArts, May 2024

In the Deep South, something evil waits in the darkness . . .

This horror graphic novel tells the story of the Turner family, who move to Alabama to care for their ailing matriarch, Vassie, when she begins suffering from dementia. But Vassie isn’t just any old lady; she’s the last of a line of powerful root women who have been caring for the community since her ancestors were first captured and enslaved by white plantation owners. When Patsy takes a closer look at the Turner family home, what she finds is beyond her wildest nightmares.

In a magical room beneath the house, Patsy discovers the source of her family’s legendary skills: the Ghanaian spider god Anansi. Driven mad by the suffering of the enslaved Africans who worshipped him, Anansi was eventually captured and contained by Patsy’s ancestors.

With their legacy and the god’s imprisonment in the balance, Patsy and her brother, Demetrius, will have to take up their grandmother’s mantle—while she can still remember who they are.

DEVOUR is a terrifying new fable that delivers thrills and chills in equal measure.

Jazmine Joyner is a Black disabled nonbinary femme who has been working in various parts of the comics industry for years. They are based in Southern California and have written for Women Write About Comics, The Comics MNT, and others. DEVOUR is their debut graphic novel.

Anthony Pugh has worked on various projects in the creative industry, including marketing, advertising, storyboard art, character design, and comic book art. Anthony has worked with companies like IDW, Comedy Central, Ogilvy x Adidas, Kid Robot, and Pepsi Cola.

THE RUINOUS LOVE TRILOGY de Brynne Weaver

A dark romantic comedy series of interconnected stand-alone novels following the Kane brothers and the murderous women they fall for. Each novel is told in dual POV and concludes with a happy ending.

THE RUINOUS LOVE TRILOGY
by Brynne Weaver
Zando, 2023 – 2024
(via The Whalen Agency)

Book One: BUTCHER & BLACKBIRD (August 2023)

Every serial killer needs a friend.

Every game must have a winner.

When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of a like-minded, pitch-black soul. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country.

But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love.

Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves?

Or have they finally met their match?

Book Two: LEATHER & LARK (February 2024)

Every killer claims a soul.

Every phantom wants revenge.

Contract killer Lachlan Kane just wants a quieter life, to work in his leather studio and forget about the traumatic past that’s forged him into a deadly weapon. But he needs to repay an endless debt, at least until the day his boss offers him a deal: marry Lark Montague, the daughter of his most valued business partner. The only problem?

They can’t stand each other.

Indie singer-songwriter Lark is the sunshine and glitter that burns through every cloud and clings to every crevice that Lachlan tries to hide inside. A rich family, a privileged life, a dearth of responsibilities—Lark has had an easy life. At least, that’s how it seems. But Lark is on the verge of losing her security. And now it’s time to prove she can get control of her haphazard future. What better way than to marry a man who’s the exact opposite of her usual type?

As Lachlan and Lark navigate the intrigue and secrets of the hidden world that binds them together, it becomes harder to discern a fake marriage from a real one. But it’s not just familiar dangers that haunt them.

There’s another phantom lurking on their doorstep.

And this one has come for blood.

Book Three: SCYTHE & SPARROW (September 2024)

Every flight has a landing.

Every circus has a final curtain.

Doctor Fionn Kane is running from a broken heart, one he hopes to mend in small-town Nebraska far away from his former fiancé and his derailed surgical career. It’s a simpler life: head down, work hard, and absolutely no romantic relationships. He wants none of the circus he left behind in Boston.

But the Silveria Circus finds him.

Motorcycle performer Rose Evans has spent a decade on the road with Silveria, and it suits her just fine, especially when she has the urge to indulge in a little murder and mayhem when she’s not in the spotlight. But when a kill goes awry and she ends up with a broken leg, she finds herself stuck in Nebraska at the home of the adorably nerdy town doctor.

The problem is, not every broken heart can be sewn back together.

…And the longer you stay in one place, the more likely your ghosts are to catch up.

Brynne Weaver has been everything from an archaeologist to a deep sea core analyst, an equestrian professional to a specialist in clinical research. She’s traveled the world, taken in more stray animals than her husband would probably prefer, and nurtured her love for both dark comedies and swoon-worthy romances. But during all those adventures, the constant thread in Brynne’s life has been writing. After self-publishing her debut book in 2021, Brynne has since carved a name for herself in the genre of dark romance with eight published works. Her most recent novel, the dark romantic comedy BUTCHER & BLACKBIRD, hit #1 in Romantic Suspense in New Releases on Amazon.