English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Catalan rights (Edicions 62), France (Alma), Italy (Einaudi), Japan (Shobunsha)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag)
Chosen for the 2020 New York Times Book Review Globetrotting Selection
A subversive educational course on the origin, meaning and value of money and our way of dealing with it
»Nameless gods reign the economy: coincidence and arbitrariness.«
Every time Aunt Fé comes to visit, the rather ordinary daily life of the Federmann family is turned upside down. Elderly, jaunty Aunt Fé is a sly lady. She lead an adventurous life and wasn’t spared from inflation, inheritances and bankruptcies, has experienced poverty and squandering, exile and abundance. Now she is rich and lives alone in her villa next to Lake Geneva.
But what does Aunt Fé want from the Federmanns, her only relatives? One thing is for certain: she does not want to bore them. Which is why she invites the three Federmann-children to a luxury hotel. She pampers, baffles, and excites them. Finally they feel taken seriously and receive answers to questions such as: Where does money come from? Why is it never enough, even though we’re dealing with millions and billions of it? Why would a central bank incur debts by printing endless amounts of money? Why are the black economy, the black market, black money and working under the table so essential everywhere? And why ever is the management constantly showered with bonuses? Aunt Fé does away with the brokers’ nonsense. She explains the current operating system of greed and fear to the children matter-of-factly.
This is the right book at the right time: when phrases like Eurozone crisis, »Grexit«, bail-outs, quantitive easing, negative interest, and warnings of new financial bubbles building in the stock and property markets pop up everywhere, Enzensberger’s book deals with children’s questions on economy, starting from one basic question: What is money and where does it come from? This is not a theoretical treatise, but a novel with fascinating and vivid characters.
»perceptive, amusing, inspiring« Weltwoche
»Hans Magnus Enzensberger explains the essential in a funny way […] The praise of luxury is a pleasant affront to the hypocritical puritanical trend typical of our times; [praise that] he lets the cigar-smoking protagonist utter and that, in a way, continues seamlessly in the luxurious design of the book itself.« Nürnberger Nachrichten
»Enzensberger succeeds in igniting the reader’s enthusiasm for his witty critique of capitalism with humour as well as countless photos and diagrams, collage-like interspersed.« General-Anzeiger
»perceptive, amusing, inspiring« Weltwoche
»Hans Magnus Enzensberger explains the essential in a funny way […] The praise of luxury is a pleasant affront to the hypocritical puritanical trend typical of our times; [praise that] he lets the cigar-smoking protagonist utter and that, in a way, continues seamlessly in the luxurious design of the book itself.« Nürnberger Nachrichten
»Enzensberger succeeds in...
Hans Magnus Enzensberger was born in Kaufbeuren in 1929. He died on November 24, 2022, aged 93, in Munich. As a poet, essayist, writer, biographer, editor and translator, he was one of the world’s most influential and internationally renowned German intellectuals.
Hans Magnus Enzensberger was born in Kaufbeuren in 1929. He died on November 24, 2022, aged 93, in Munich. As a poet, essayist, writer,...
Babel! A word seemingly born from chaos in its alliterating, rolling urgency. The poet pulls several examples of how deception and self-deceit, misjudgements and failing routines determine...
Bengali rights (Parampara)
»How’s the confidence of the financial astrologers doing? What does the gibberish of the daily papers tell us? How much reality is contained in the mythical models of contemporary physics and cosmology? Towards which ultimate goal is our contemporaries’ pathological mobility drifting? What is the ubiquitous craze for abbreviations hiding? And down which garden path are the fine arts trying to...
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Nature has treated people somewhat like a stepmother would. Other animals are stronger, can swim and fly better, give birth less awkwardly and do not need as much time to become adults. How can it be then that this weak creature came to be the strongest on earth? The answer, if you believe the author, has to do with the division of labour. Thanks to this trick every one of us, he believes,...
The hitherto unpublished and unknown correspondence between Ingeborg Bachmann and Hans Magnus Enzensberger allows one to relive how, after the Second World War, two of the most prominent writers in the German language chose to depict and regard the world, literature and the publishing industry, but also how they wished to present and be regarded themselves.
One was...
»It is hard to shake off one’s date of birth. M. drags his around with him, too.« The first twenty years of life are baggage that a person is forever stuck with. But...
Spanish world rights (Anagrama), France (Gallimard), Serbia (Laguna)
The 20th century was the heyday of writers who had survived state terror and purges with all the ethical and political ambivalences that this entailed. How did they manage to do that? Were they...
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Altamarea), France (Alma), Italy (Einaudi), Serbia (Laguna), Turkey (Iletisim)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Book Club rights (Büchergilde Gutenberg)
In 1963 the author took his first trip to Russia and unexpectedly became a guest at Khrushchev's dacha in Gagra. The result was a detailed portrait of the man and the Soviet »Thaw«...
English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Fonghong Books), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Todavia), France (Gallimard), Italy (Einaudi), Denmark (Gyldendal), Croatia (Disput), Greece (Hestia)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Malpaso)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag), German Entire Radio Reading (HR), German Book Club (Büchergilde Gutenberg)
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), France (Alma)
Domestic Rights Sales:German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag), German Radio Play (Hessischer Rundfunk)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi)
In his new book, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, the master of the political and literary essay, discloses information about matters big and small, daily and commonplace themes, astounding his readers...
English world rights (Seagull), France (Alma)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Malpaso), Italy (Einaudi), Korea (Orot)
Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Fonghong Books), France (Gallimard),
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Catalan rights (Arcadia), Portuguese rights (Relogio d'Agua), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Cossee), Denmark (Hovedland), Sweden (Karneval), Norway (Valdisholm), Croatia (Meandarmedia), Greece (Nefeli)
Russia (selection; Obedinennoe)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Seagull), Spanish rights Latin America (Capital Intelectual), Italy (Einaudi)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Seagull), Italy (Einaudi)
In 1959, just after Uwe Johnson’s relocation to West berlin and the publication of his debut novel Speculations About Jakob, the correspondence and friendship between Johnson and Hans Magnus Enzensberger commences. Over the course of eight years they communicate about the situation of literature and politics and discuss the scopes of political activism. At the same time,...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Denmark (Gyldendal)
English world rights (Upper West Side Philosophers)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: France (Jacqueline Chambon)
English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Fonghong Books), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia das Letras), France (Gallimard)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Cossée), Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Norstedts), Norway (Press), Japan (Shobunsha), Poland (Swiat Ksiazki), Croatia (Disput), Serbia (Prometej), Turkey (Everest), Greece (Kastaniotis)
Spanish world rights (Anagrama)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi), Finland (Savukeidas), Estonia (Loomingu Raamatukogu)