Love, intrigue and the most desirable jewellery in the world – the first instalment in a two-book series about the Cartier family’s glamorous life.
CARTIER: Der Traum von Diamanten
(Diamond Dreams)
The Cartier Saga, Book 1
by Sophie Villard
Penguin Germany, November 2024
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.
Sophie Villard is the pen name of a successful German author. She studied journalism and political science, and lives near Dresden with her family. Her novel about the famous art collector Peggy Guggenheim was a Spiegel bestseller. After Madame Exupéry und die Sterne des Himmels (‘Madame Exupéry and the Starry Skies’) and Mademoiselle Eiffel und der Turm der Liebe (‘Mademoiselle Eiffel and the Tower of Love’), she has now turned to writing an exciting saga about the Cartiers.
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.
L’historienne Christina Morina a reçu le 11 juin le Prix allemand de la non-fiction 2024 (Deutscher Sachbuchpreis 2024) pour son ouvrage 
Ever since her mother’s death, 29-year-old Akiko has led a modest and reclusive life in Tokyo. Her monotonous job as a bookkeeper offers little excitement, and she has no real friends or family. Then, one evening, she runs into an old face from her schooldays: Kento is an outsider, just like her, and even back then she always felt drawn to him. As if that wasn’t enough, Akiko is shocked to discover that the man she thought of as her dad was in fact only a hired actor, paid by her single mother to play a part. Akiko begins to wonder: is everything a lie? And, more profoundly: who is she, really?