Archives de catégorie : Nos incontournables

WO DIE GEISTER TANZEN de Joana Osman

Three generations linked by a yearning to put down roots a colourful novel based on the author’s family history.

WO DIE GEISTER TANZEN
(Where the Ghosts Dance)
by Joana Osman
C.Bertelsmann/PRH Germany, August 2023

Jaffa is Sabiha and Ahmed’s home. It is where they’re raising their sons, and where they have opened their own cinema, so that they can sit in the back row and cry at Shirley Temple movies. But when Israel declares independence in 1948 and the Arab-Israeli war breaks out, the family is forced to flee. They embark on an Odyssey that takes them first to Lebanon and then to Turkey. As they search for a new home, all they find is derelict temporary housing and states that refuse to accept them. They grieve for the dead, but never lose their lust for life – not to mention their sense of humour.

Seventy years later, Osman travels to Israel in search of her family’s past. Who were these two people, who raised her father on the run? What was the trip like which invisibly, but decisively, affected her own youth?

Fiction and biography merge as Osman seeks to salvage her family’s story – an imaginative and delightfully funny novel, where the ghosts of the past come to dance.

Joana Osman, born in 1982, is the daughter of a Palestinian father and German mother. After studying American studies, theatre and history of art, she co-founded Peace Factory, a Middle East peace movement, in 2012. She is now a novelist, lecturer and storytelling coach, and lives near Munich with her family. Her debut novel, « Am Boden des Himmels » (« The Bottom of the Sky »), appeared in 2019.

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

THE WINGFEATHER SAGA d’Andrew Peterson

Once, in a cottage above the cliffs on the Dark Sea of Darkness, there lived three children and their trusty dog, Nugget.

THE WINGFEATHER SAGA
by Andrew Peterson
WaterBrook/Crown, March 2020

Book 1: ON THE EDGE OF THE DARK SEA OF DARKNESS (March 2020)

Janner Igiby, his brother, Tink, and their disabled sister, Leeli, are gifted children as all children are, loved well by a noble mother and ex-pirate grandfather. But they will need all their gifts and all that they love to survive the evil pursuit of the venomous Fangs of Dang, who have crossed the dark sea to rule the land with malice. The Igibys hold the secret to the lost legend and jewels of good King Wingfeather of the Shining Isle of Anniera.

Full of characters rich in heart, smarts, and courage, ON THE EDGE OF THE DARK SEA OF DARKNESS is a tale children of all ages will cherish, families can read aloud, and readers’ groups are sure to enjoy discussing for its many layers of meaning. Extra features include new interior illustrations from Joe Sutphin, funny footnotes, a map of the fantastical world, inventive appendices, and fanciful line art in the tradition of the original Frank L. Baum Wizard of Oz storybooks.

Book 2: NORTH! OR BE EATEN (March 2020)

Janner, Tink, and Leeli Igiby thought they were normal children with normal lives and a normal past. But now they know they’re really the Lost Jewels of Anniera, heirs to a legendary kingdom across the sea, and suddenly everyone wants to kill them.

In order to survive, the Igibys must flee to the safety of the Ice Prairies, where the lizardlike Fangs of Dang cannot follow. First, however, they have to escape the monsters of Glipwood Forest, the thieving Stranders of the East Ben, and the dreaded Fork Factory. But even more dangerous are the jealousies and bitterness that threaten to tear them apart. Janner and his siblings must learn the hard way that the love of a family is more important than anything else.

Book 3: THE MONSTER IN THE HOLLOWS (September 2020)

Janner, Tink, and Leeli Igiby, the Lost Jewels of Anniera, are hiding from Gnag the Nameless in the Green Hollows, one of the few places in the land of Aerwiar not overrun by the Fangs of Dang. But there’s a big problem. Janner’s little brother–heir to the throne of Anniera–has grown a tail. And gray fur. Not to mention two pointed ears and long, dangerous fangs. To the suspicious folk of the Green Hollows, he looks like a monster. But Janner knows better. His brother isn’t as scary as he looks. He’s perfectly harmless. Isn’t he?

Book 4: THE WARDEN AND THE WOLF KING (September 2020)

All winter long, people in the Green Hollows have prepared for a final battle with Gnag the Nameless and the Fangs of Dang. Janner, Kalmar, and Leeli are ready and willing to fight alongside the Hollowsfolk. But when the Fangs make the first move and invade Ban Rona, the children are separated.

Janner is alone and lost in the hills; Leeli is fighting the Fangs from the rooftops of the city; and Kalmar, who carries a terrible secret, is on a course for the Deeps of Throg. Monsters and Fangs and villains lie between the children and their only hope of victory in the epic conclusion of THE WINGFEATHER SAGA.

Andrew Peterson is the bestselling author of the Wingfeather Saga, a singer/songwriter, and the founder of The Rabbit Room, which fosters community through story, art, and music. He and his wife, Jamie, live in Nashville.