Suhrkamp Insel

Susanne Kaiser

Political Masculinity

»We must re-discover our masculinity,« is the appeal to German men by Björn Höcke, probably Germany’s most famous right-wing politician. With this demand, the AfD politician is not alone: From New Zealand to Canada, from Brazil to Poland, right-wing populists, so-called »Incels«, but also Christian pro-life activists are connecting with one another under the banner of masculinity to push women back to a subordinate place in an allegedly natural hierarchy.

Dževad Karahasan

Diary of an Exodus

»White with fear and sleeplessness we set out to see what was left of Marijin Dvor.« Once more they have been spared: a piece of shrapnel missed the author and his wife and hit the books instead: William Faulkner, Nadezhda Mandelstam, Gottfried Keller’s Green Henry. Dževad Karahasan describes life in besieged Sarajevo in short, unforgettable scenes.

Ursula Keller, Natalja Sharandak

Dostoevsky and Women

As a young man, shy and self-conscious, Dostoevsky only met his first wife when he was in his early thirties: Maria Isaeva. »Despite the fact that we were rather unhappy together,« remembers the writer after her death, »we still could not stop loving one another.« Even while Maria was still alive, he began a passionate affair with Polina Suslova, who became the model for his »infernal« female characters.

Merle Kröger

The Experts

The 1960s have started and with them the Age of Aquarius. Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death in Tel Aviv. Konrad Adenauer agrees on military aid for Israel. At the same time, however, German aeronautical engineers, engine builders and rocket scientists are drawn to Egypt in great numbers.

Thomas Kunst

The Cliffs of Zandschow

Bengt Claasen is sitting in his car, all his earthly possessions in the boot. In front of him, on the dashboard, sits the collar that belonged to his deceased dog. Wherever it falls down, he is going to stop and start a new life. He drives as slowly and carefully as he can and eventually, he reaches Zandschow – a tiny village in the far north with a fire-fighting pond as its centre.

Julia Leeb

Humaneness in Times of Fear

Photojournalist Julia Leeb reports from the most dangerous places on the planet. She experiences up close how people behave in extreme situations, be it during the battles of the Nubians in the Sudan, among warlords in the Congo, during the war in Libya, the revolution in Egypt or under the isolated dictatorship of North Korea.

Sibylle Lewitscharoff

Pong at the Abyss

Things aren’t great with our flighty hero. Not even the clear night sky can entice him from his bed. The disappointment about the humiliation his »so-called friend« inflicted on him is too great.

Juliane Liebert

songs to the great void

On the brink of sleep, walking around in the big city, we encounter Nikolai Gogol and Marianne Faithfull, sock dandies and party girls, the damaged and those left behind, »face down«, »on broadway at the bus stop«, »for ten, fifteen minutes, really«. They are »so tired of the games, even the knives are sick of stabbing«. Because what else is the heart but a »muscular hollow organ« – octopuses have three of them, us people: »a sudden fear of trains«.

Isabell Lorey

Democracy in the Present Tense

Amidst the crises and threats to liberal democracy, Isabell Lorey develops a democracy in the political present that bursts open political certainties as well as linear ideas about progress and growth.

Nicolas Mahler

Thomas Bernhard

»Thomas Bernhard is born in Heerlen (the Netherlands) on February 9, 1931. The afterbirth has the shape of Austria.« – thus begins Bernhard’s biography as drawn by comic artist Nicolas Mahler.

Andreas Maier

The Cities

In the newest instalment of his book series Ortsumgehung, Andreas Maier takes us on a journey. He paints the picture of the past decades by reference to the cities and landscapes that flanked the tourist trails of a society obsessed with mobility.

Mischa Mangel

A Slit of Air

Shortly after he was born, his mother suffers her first psychosis. She takes the infant and withdraws from the outside world more and more, breaks off all contact with friends and family, rarely leaves the one-bedroom flat. Meanwhile, his father fights for sole custody. When the son is finally welcomed into his new family, all contact with his mother stops. That is why, almost twenty years later, he depends on the testimony of others – court files, tape recordings, family stories and memories – to learn what happened during that time. He imagines what that time could have been like and a surreal, nightmarish world catches up with him.

Hans-Peter Müller

Crisis and Criticism

All the »classic« sociologists of the 19th and 20th century have attempted to understand and explain the great transformation from pre-modern to modern society. In their endeavour, they pursued new theoretical and methodological paths and presented paradigmatic analyses that culminated in spectacular diagnoses of the times.

Jakob Nolte

Short Book About Tobias

In forty-eight chapters Short Book About Tobias describes the life of the writer, pastor and televangelist Tobias Becker. He grew up in Lower Saxony and now lives in Berlin, he likes to play table tennis and wants what is good. On a trip to Belgrade, he falls in love with a man called Tobias and discovers God. He witnesses people turn into rabbits, love turn into hate and an airplane burning to ashes in the Alps. Like many men, Tobias believes that within him hides a messiah. In Tobias Becker’s world, everything is inextricably linked: family, faith, subject and violence. It is a world full of nightmares and miracles.

Christoph Nußbaumeder

The Unexpected

Late summer in the year 1900 in the Bavarian Forest. Standing on a hill, the young labourer Maria looks down at her village. The glass factory that employs the local people is engulfed in flames. Maria herself has started the fire as revenge for a rape that went unpunished.

Ole Nymoen, Wolfgang M. Schmitt

Influencers

People over thirty often don’t even know their names, but to younger generations they are superstars: influencers. Young adults and even children film themselves doing makeup, travelling or exercising and share their tips with their fans via social media. Along the way, they skilfully place product cues and that’s how they make a living – or even a fortune.

Deniz Ohde

Sky Glow

Sky Glow tells a story of class and origin without pithy slogans, of discrimination and contempt and their effects on the individual. The book talks about social shame, societal constraints and inequality, but at the same time it is a novel about a young woman’s self-empowerment, despite all adversities.

Hanno Rauterberg

Future Art

Computers paint like Rembrandt, compose like Bach, write novels and poems. If it were up to digital corporations, this would be just the beginning. Artificial creativity is the new key objective: Machines are destined to become artists, as autonomous and gifted as people.

Hans-Jörg Rheinberger

Gap and Joint

This book deals with scientific experimentation which has been playing an increasingly important role in the sciences since the Early Modern Age. It is all the more surprising, therefore, that scientific philosophy and history have hardly investigated the incredible diversity of experimentation.

Hedwig Richter

Towards Modernity

The German Empire, founded in 1871, is often considered a stronghold of subservience to authority, chauvinism and militarism. Yet, at the same time, it was a point of departure towards modern mass democracy. The Empire had an intelligent constitution, ambitious reforms were initiated, and one of the biggest changes of all was gaining crucial momentum: women’s liberation.