Your best friend has been murdered. You saw it happen. But you can’t remember anything…
HALTLOS
by Sarah Nisi
btb/PRH Germany, January 2025
Emily has been feeling like an outsider for months now. The Londoner can’t cope with everyday life any more, and has to give up her studies. Three months ago, her friend Liv fell onto the Tube tracks and died – Emily was standing right next to her, but can’t recall anything about the incident. The police thinks it was an accident, but Emily suspects there’s more to it. She must find a way to remember. But why is everyone she tries to talk to about it being so evasive? And what if she discovers a terrible truth about herself in the process? Little does Emily know that her life is already in serious danger…
A brilliantly constructed psychological thriller about unreliable memories, and a perilous hunt for the truth.
Sarah Nisi has lived in London since 2012. She was born in Hildesheim, and worked as a corporate lawyer in Düsseldorf for several years before moving to London to study creative writing. Since then the German-British author has dedicated most of her time to writing. London’s particular atmosphere and social diversity are key ingredients of her thrillers. Her debut Ich will dir nah sein (‘I want to be close to you’) was a bestseller in Germany, and shortlisted for prestigious prizes including the Glauser, the Viktor Crime Award and the Crime Cologne Award.
Healers, shamans, priests, midwives, soothsayers: in antiquity, female communities and networks exchanged valuable, even life-saving, knowledge about nursing, healing, spirituality and sexuality. But in our patriarchal societies with their male-dominated academic discourse, female knowledge was often dismissed as irrelevant or un-serious and esoteric.
Paris, 1910. Now that her engagement to an aristocrat has been called off, Jeanne Toussaint tries to make ends meet as a seamstress in unsavoury Montmartre. One night, she meets jeweller Louis Cartier in a nightclub. He and his brothers have shops in Paris, London and New York where anyone who’s anyone buys their jewellery. Louis immediately recognises that Jeanne has a sure sense of style and is immensely talented. But it’s more than that: he can’t deny his attraction to this charming, vivacious young woman. But storm clouds are gathering on Europe’s horizon, and the Cartier family are in danger of losing everything.
In young scientist Mara Lux’s life, practically everything revolves around sleep. She lives in London, and is a leading scholar in the field – but has herself been tortured by insomnia for years. She’s scared of her dreams, because they have an uncanny habit of blurring with reality. Which is particularly tough for Mara, because she’s nothing if not rational, and likes to be in control.
Precht’s « Who Am I – And If Yes, How Many? » introduced millions of readers to the big philosophical questions of our time, making him one of Germany’s most famous authors. A good fifteen years later, it is being published again – this time as a graphic novel. Illustrated by Jörg Hartmann, it gives us Precht’s wisdom inside a modern aesthetic. Everything we know about ourselves from neuroscience, psychology and philosophy is contained within its pages – creating a unique path through the plainly mind-boggling amount of information out there about what it means to be human.