Featured Topics: Autumn 2026 Fiction

Even as a child, Adalina loved the rattling sound of the Bibliomotocarro – the little library on wheels that Maestro La Cava would bring to her tiny Italian mountain village, brimming with stories. Years later, now a writer herself, she returns home and stumbles across the abandoned bookmobile in a garage. But there is no sign of the old maestro.

When Adalina learns that the book tours...

Anton and Alma meet for the first time as exchange students in France. Years later, they run into each other at a party. They both grew up in Berlin and are studying at the same university – but...

»When dreams come true, you quickly forget them. It's the others you have to live with.«

After being postponed twice due to the pandemic, the »Grenzgang« festival is finally going...

Matti – fifteen years old, the son of rich parents – is on a school camp. He's in grade ten, and the whole class is on the tiny island of Amrum. During these days of digging up sandworms, hanging around on the beach, smoking weed and making out, Matti suffers a mental breakdown. It feels like he’s looking at the world from upside down. He starts to see an antelope among the sand dunes. His...

In the early days of the new millennium, Carl Bischoff returns to Berlin from the surrounding countryside, only to quickly head off again. His pilgrimage follows the path of a woman who seems to have...

Following her divorce, Matilde’s long-held desire to brush up on her Italian takes her to Venice, where she instantly falls in love with the lagoon city – so much so that she spontaneously applies for the vacancy at the bookshop run by the enchanting Bruna.

But Bruna is hiding something. What is the story behind the mysterious book she keeps in a locked display cabinet and refuses to...

Western Germany, 1948: Her son's name is all Liese has left: Johannes. That, and the memory of his blue eyes — inherited from his father, a French occupation soldier and the love of her life. They...

Horizons are borderlines of perception that produce a here and a there, and determine the space of living. Christian Lehnert’s new book, The Ends of Vision, walks towards horizons, towards the limits of perception and existence, in an effort to explore them – those worlds that only exist in our imagination and at the same time transcend them, because they hint at something beyond them. But what...

Peter Huchel’s poems are characterised by an unmistakable tone and occupy a key position within German poetry of the 20th century. What’s more, their publication history is inscribed with half a century of turbulent change – from the mid-1920s through to the end of the 1970s.

This new, annotated complete edition presents Huchel’s poetic oeuvre for the first time chronologically and...

When Lucy takes a job as a social media consultant for the once-legendary rock band Crrowl, she knows there’ll be plenty of stress on the road, sleep deprivation, and controlled chaos. What she doesn’t expect is a band that harbours dark secrets. Crrowl was once the loudest, wildest, most dangerous rock band in Europe and had massive hits. But Crrowl’s mythic status isn’t based solely on music....

They only see each other once a year, and each time, they end up in an argument. The father who came to Germany as a young man, started a family, worked in hospitality, and left the country thirty years later for Croatia. And his son, who lives in Berlin and has become a writer and is now holidaying in his father’s guest house on the Adriatic Coast. In their arguments, they free themselves from...

Paul’s language is noise: monstrously blaring tracks in which he screams out his despair in a distorted voice. Away from the stage though, everything seems empty, nobody understands him or his...

»His sense of justice made him into a robber and a murderer.« That’s how Heinrich von Kleist describes the horse dealer Michael Kohlhaas in his eponymous novella, a man who goes on a bloody rampage...

Notting Hill, London. A mysterious incident occurs during the filming of the most successful romcom of recent decades. A huge lead weight falls from a camera crane, narrowly missing the lead actor. What appears to be a tragic accident turns out to be the first in a series of carefully orchestrated assassination attempts.

Production is going to be called off, but a decision is made...

»Understand me, appreciate me, praise me, love me. And you’d better do it in a way that I can believe. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee anything. Otherwise, I can’t rule out violent outbursts that could lead to deaths…«

With this covert, unspoken instruction manual for interacting with the average male ego, author Heinz Helle initiates an interrogation of images of masculinity in his play...

On a »sun-drenched day in June «, Jacob Vrell leaves his apartment and heads toward a friend’s café. He has carefully planned every step and every word he intends to say. Yet time and again, something causes him to pause, take a detour, or let his thoughts wander. In the end, he does arrive at the café, just as he arrives at the other stations of forgotten happiness, but he also comes to realise...

Her paintings adorn the houses of Madonna, Jack Nicholson, and Barbra Streisand – Tamara de Lempicka (1894–1980) was a popstar of modern painting. Her life was brimming with passion, danger, and boundless energy. She managed her own image as meticulously as she did the subjects in her glamorous paintings. The »Queen of Art déco« loved the Renaissance and strong women, the ruins of Pompei, and...

Christmas is a time of miracles… At the start of the festive season, Christiane, who has been living a secluded life since her husband’s death, meets Gero by chance. From the very first moment, they both feel a special connection. And so their first encounter is followed by a tender courtship. Between choir rehearsals, walks in the snow, and a trip to Salzburg, feelings develop that neither of...

In the attic, amongst all sorts of tools, tattered books, and photo albums, a boy discovers a special little box, tucked away behind an old sofa. It is beautifully painted with birds and blossoms and a dancing mouse in a frilly skirt – but it is not until years later that he finds the key to the tiny lock and can finally uncover its secret: The box is a storyteller – it has wondrous tales to tell...