Rightslist

»Hannes Köhler has created fascinating characters in David and Luisa: complex, contradictory, clever. I fell more in love with them – and their love – with every page. A great text that I could not escape!« Julia Wolf
 
»Hannes Köhler is a truthful and tender storyteller.« Daniela Dröscher
 
»Ten Pictures of a Love is an accomplished novel that speaks to contemporary debates around gender roles, motherhood, and masculine identity. Hannes Köhler’s charming love story will resonate with readers of David Nicholl’s One Day and Benedict Wells’ The End of Loneliness.« New Books in German
 

David and Luisa meet for the first time on the island of Milos, spend a night together, and then go their separate ways. Years later, they unexpectedly cross paths again, this time choosing to stay together. Luisa brings her daughter Ronja from a previous relationship into their lives, and together, they form a patchwork family. As David embraces his role as a father, he grows closer to Ronja, but his deepening desire to have a child of his own becomes a source of tension between them …
 
The concept of a one true love: is it an idea that still makes sense today? And if it is, what might this great love look like, if it is one that isn't confined by traditional gender roles or romantic ideals? Ten Pictures of a Love follows such a love in our time – a love that's chaotic, a struggle between individuality and togetherness, complicated by age differences and past relationships. The novel unfolds in ten non-chronological "pictures," each offering a glimpse into the evolution of their relationship. Hannes Köhler examines the complexities of modern love, its risks, and the constant process of reinvention. A raw and unflinching portrayal of family, it captures both the struggles and beauty of a love that must continually adapt and redefine itself.
 

Hannes Köhler, born in 1982 in Hamburg, lives as a freelance author and translator in Berlin. He participated in the prose workshop at the Literary Colloquium Berlin, the Goldschmidt Program for German-French literary translation, and received the Döblin Grant by the Academy of Arts for his work on Ten Pictures of a Love. His highly successful novel One Possible Life (2018) won the price for best family novel of the year by the Ravensburger foundation, it was followed by Götterfunken in 2021. 

German Book Prize 2016, 21st Century Best Foreign Novel of the Year 2017 award (China)

Rights sold to:

France (Gallimard), Italy (Neri Pozza Editore), The  Netherlands (Lebowski), Denmark (Bechs Forlag), Czech Republic, (Akropolis), China ( People’s Literature Publishing House), Korea (Redsamnamu), Turkey (Can Yayınları), Greece (Aiora Press), Egypt (General Authority für kulturelle Paläste, Ministerium für Kultur)

Until recently, Reither ran a small publishing company in the big city, now he lives a solitary life on the edge of the Alps. In the evening, his pondering over a mysterious book is interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. He opens the door and right there and then, the encounter which will take him to Sicily within three days, begins. The hand that takes him there is Leonie Palm's. Leonie used to own a hat-shop. But now that the world lacks faces that look good with hats on and writers have come to outnumber readers, they both had good reasons to quit. Yet, an even stronger bond between the two is provided by the fact that neither of them is prepared for true love anymore. Upon arrival on the Mediterranean, after three full days in the car, this love does hit them and they are joined by a girl who does not speak a single word. She is just there ...

In his novella »Widerfahrnis«, Bodo Kirchhoff presents the parable of a twofold fall: into love, without being able to fully feel it and into humanity, without being good enough.

Bodo Kirchhoff, born in 1948, is one of the most important and well-known authors of the contemporary German literature. His last two novels »Desire and Melancholy« (2014) and »Love in Broad Strokes« (2012) were published with Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt and celebrated by readers and critics alike. His novella »Widerfahrnis« has been awarded the German Book Prize 2016 and the Dutch edition (Lebowski 2017) has been longlisted for the Europese Literatuurprijs 2018. The Chinese translation of Widerfahrnis was announced as the 21st Century Best Foreign Novel of the Year 2017.

Where action meets reflection: »World of Glass« by Ernst-Wilhelm-Händler

Jillian and Jacob Armacost run New York’s most famous glass gallery. A truly disparate couple.  While Jillian has had a passion for the glasses of Tiffany’s ever since a childhood experience which at the age of twenty five made her a leading expert, thirty years older womanizer Jacob almost ruins their business with a really bad bargain.
Jillian wants to divorce Jacob, but first she has to secure the future of the gallery. A valuable collection of glass vases in Italy seem to be the last resort – without the slightest hesitation she flys to Europe. Meanwhile Jacob is at the mexican border. By entertaining an eccentric client he tries to come into money his own way.
Jillian and Jacob Armacost both committed their fate to the glass: She hopes for eternity, he lives life for the moment. Transparent but inaccessible, living yet still steady – the World of Glass. It means a lot of money for those who recognize what they see. While Jillian hits the bull’s eye in Italy, Jacob is kidnapped in Mexico …

Car chases in the streets of Tijuana, escapades in San Diego and in Venice – in Ernst-Wilhelm Händler’s great  novel action meets reflection in a both surprising and imposing way.

Ernst-Wilhelm Händler was born in 1953, and lives in Regensburg and Munich.

»Composed with the suspense of a crime novel, the objective of philosophical concerns, with historical precision and psychological flair.« Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Konrad Weber is the deputy head of the German Consulate in Milan, which, seeming a peaceful place in 1943, protects him from the daily routine of the Nazi dictatorship. After his superior retires he has a much younger and inexperienced henchman plonked in front of him. Palmer finds out about some discrepancies in the books of account Weber is responsible for. Wendler, an acquaintance of his, provides a way out of Webers more than difficult situation, certainly not in an act of charity.  He proposes a risky deal ...

Nora Bossong's debut novel »Hereabout« (FVA, 2006) was praised »one of the best in the last years«. In her second book »Weber's Record« a young narrator reconstructs Weber's past with the help of an old diplomat: an exciting novel, artistically synchronizing various time levels – a book about a german diplomat under Hitler, and in Post-War Germany, where everybody's trying to forget about the past.

»A highly concentrated character sketch of a contemporary witness and a suspenseful crime novel!« Frankfurter Rundschau

»The most talented writer of her generation! Comparably young authors pale into insignificance beside the historical precision and the stylistic intuition of Nora Bossong.« Neue Zürcher Zeitung

Nora Bossong lives in Berlin. Her research took the young writer to Rome, Milan and Zurich where she came into contact with the highly official but secretive world of diplomats and state secretaries. She got a scholarship for the German House in New York for »Weber's Record«

There is a promise having been made years ago: The one, who will gain a foothold in the big city, will make the other follow. Now she has come after her boy friend overseas, first and foremost to give herself a try in the distant metropolis. What was meant to be a fresh start turns out as the beginning of a farewell. There are Gregor’s extra hours and their uneasiness in the evenings when they both lie side by side in the dark. And the cat in the patio, which he feeds when he feels unobserved. Chased by her longing for familiar terrain, the narrator roams the wintrily streets and searches for some signs of love and their former intimacy.
She remembers scenes from the beginning of their relationship: when their bodies’ interplay seemed to overcome every limit and they both clung to the same dreams, when she presented him the documents for the Green-Card-Lottery believing she could push their common future. Now she has to painfully accept that he refuses her warmth and secludes himself. Visiting an opera performance together turns out as a disaster. The atmosphere is fragile as glass and compares to someone holding his breath. It keeps on until both are visiting a party. Suddenly a scene flashes through her mind when? in front of an open fridge? everything between them had unnoticedly fallen into pieces.

With a trenchant and distinct voice Britta Boerdner creates an emotional world distinguished by high-minded authenticity, a melancholic microcosm within a metropolis whose rigidity already points towards departure. By using impressive images the novel describes the moment when a love relationship silently – in hiding – ends.

Britta Boerdner was born in Fulda. After training as a bookseller, she majored in American studies, German studies and historical ethnology in Frankfurt on the Main. Her debut novel »What Remains Hidden«, published in 2012, has been followed by her second novel »The Day That Frank Z. Came to the ›Green Tree Inn‹«, published by FVA in 2017. Britta Boerdner lives in Frankfurt on the Main.

Awarded the Ulla Hahn Prize For Literary Debut 2018

»Let’s say we go?«
»It’s too cold, also it’ll start snowing soon,« I say.    
I watch Karine bite her lip until it’s bloody.
 »But don’t you want to know?«, she asks.  
»What?«
»Well what’s behind the hills?!«

Ever since their mother left, one afternoon in January, the sixteen-year-old Pauli and her adopted sister Karine have had to fend for themselves. Being the elder of the two, Pauli has tried to uphold a daily routine. But the supply of preserves their mother made before she disappeared is dwindling and though it’s only November, the horizon already appears rather menacing. After the last of their fellow villagers have left and as the landscape glows with sinister pale green moonlight, that Pauli begins to feel irresistibly drawn to the hills on the horizon. It’s the unknown behind those hills that seems to swallow everyone, first their father and later even Powel the tall boy with the peculiar face, the only person Pauli has confided in. In search of an explanation, Pauli’s thoughts wander back into the past. Dark stories come to light, her fear of loneliness, the life of an outsider, a vague threat that seems to be coming from within as much as from without. Finally, Pauli realizes that she’ll have to take action, and quickly, before the snow begins to fall.

»Waiting for the snow« is a straightforward début novel. Karoline Menge’s precise language creates a dense atmosphere, calm and captivating, nothing short of hypnotic. Skillfully, she employs archaic fairytale motives and weaves them into a modern story that lures the reader deeper and deeper into its uncanny fictional world. With a courageous heroine at its center who overcomes her darkest fears, »Waiting for the snow« tells the tale of a family whose members bring disaster upon each other.  

Karoline Menge was born in 1986 in Berlin, then studied literary writing in Hildesheim. Her short stories have been published in a number of anthologies, she was voted second in the Würth prize for literature and in 2015 she received a grant from the state of Lower Saxony. In addition to her work as a novelist, Karoline Menge also writes screenplays. She currently lives in Berlin. »Waiting For The Sknow« was awarded the Ulla Hahn Prize 2018.

3sat Prize 2016, Nicolas Born Prize for Best Young Author 2017, Longlist German Book Prize 2017, Robert Gernhardt Prize 2018

Rights sold to: France (Le Castor Astral)

Every day, the retired entrepreneur Walter Nowak swims his laps in the outdoor pool. An encounter on a particularly hot morning throws him off kilter and the consequences are fatal: Walter finds himself stretched out on his bathroom floor, unable to move, his head throbbing. He thinks of Yvonne, but she has taken off for a conference. Walter is on his own. »From now on it's downwards, ever downwards« he thinks. And it seems to be true. He continues to lose control over the situation. He finds himself buried underneath thought fragments and images from the past: there is that Christmas Eve with Gisela, her pork roast, her tears; the look on the face of his son Felix when he learns about the separation; memories from his own childhood as the son of an American GI born out of wedlock and finally, the diagnosis his urologist has just revealed to him. While all the images get more and more blurry, his thoughts begin to move in circles that grow smaller and smaller – nearing a hidden core, the beginning or the end … When the summer storm finally begins to thunder, his son Felix suddenly appears in front of his door.

Julia Wolf turns her protagonist inside out with great narrative authority: Walter Nowak, an aging man, a child of the post-war era, finds himself at a crossroads. His stream of consciousness takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the human psyche and showcases Julia Wolf's virtuous command of language.

Julia Wolf, born in 1980 in Groß-Gerau, Germany, now lives in Berlin and Leipzig. For her debut novel »Alles ist jetzt« (»Everything Is Now«) she was awarded the Kunstpreis Literatur, a prize funded by the Brandenburg Lotto GmbH, and she also received numerous grants. At Ingeborg Bachmann Competition 2016, she read an excerpt from her novel »Walter Nowak won’t get up« and received the prestigious 3sat Prize in the process. In 2017 she was awarded the Nicolas-Born-Prize for the best debut and longlisted for the German Book Prize 2017. For her novel project »Old Girls« she was awarded the notable Robert Gernhardt Prize 2018.

November 1989: the Wall falls, and five young people race to Berlin in a rickety Audi to witness history firsthand. Lanfermann’s posthumously published novel captures the spirit of a generation – with all its euphoria, hopes, and the first cracks in the dream of friendship and unity.

»Mad Times hits you unexpectedly. Because a friendship like this is heartbreaking. Because Mechthild Lanfermann writes compellingly about a time that set the course for our present.« Annegret Liepold

»That’s mad!« says a guy with a Walkman, while perm hairstyles, denim jackets and babies being passed over the Wall flicker across the screen. In Eliza’s dormitory in the North Frisian town, excitement runs high. Suddenly a horn blares, and Jo, his silent friend Thies, and Ava with a red scarf in her short blonde hair wave Eliza into the Audi. »Where are we going?« someone asks, grinning crookedly. »Well, to Berlin!«

In the fever of a time when the old is torn down and something new begins, Eliza, Ava, Maria, Jo, and Thies come together – and for the first time Eliza feels part of something. But just as the utopia of unity quickly shows its first cracks, Ava, the dazzling center of their friendship, sinks deeper into crisis. Jo becomes overwhelmed, Thies is consumed by his secret love for Eliza, and Eliza herself increasingly questions what is considered »normal.«

With sharp insight and warm humor, Mechthild Lanfermann tells the story of a time when everything still seemed possible: of a newly reunited country, a budding friendship, and the realization that what ultimately defines us is also the most fleeting. A moving novel about friendship, loss, and the belief in new beginnings.

Mechthild Lanfermann, born in 1969 in Lower Saxony, died in 2024 in Berlin, studied theatre studies, German literature and philosophy in Bochum, Paris and Cologne, later journalism in Hanover. She worked as a radio journalist at various public broadcasting institutions and spent over ten years on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. She published five novels, including the crime series featuring the fictional Berlin journalist Emma Vonderwehr, for which she was nominated for the Glauser Prize.

Sold to: Turkey (Can), Egypt (Masr El Arabia)

Since his wife passed away nine years ago after a leap from 43 meters height, Hinrich lives alone. He wallows in memories of Irene, the mother of his daughter and a translator for high Italian literature. He remembers the summers in Italy, their journeys to Rome and Pompeji, where they lingered in front of the frescoes of the Villa dei Misteri for hours to understand their meaning. They loved cinema, the melancholy of the black-and-white images, but were also seduced by something light. However, what has really happened nine years ago? And what does the letter with the black edging contain? Only a journey to Warsaw can bring light into the dark.

»Desire and Melancholy« is charged with emotionally subtle suspense, a novel which takes the reader on a quest. Slowly but relentless, the protagonist discovers the truth about his wife’s death. Bodo Kirchhoff’s masterful novel is about aging and longing, describing the desire to stay eternally young and a melancholy that turns out to offer some solace at the end.

Bodo Kirchhoff, born in 1948, is one of the most important and well-known authors of the contemporary German literature. His last two novels »Desire and Melancholy« (2014) and »Love in Broad Strokes« (2012) were published with Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt and celebrated by readers and critics alike. His novella »Widerfahrnis« has been awarded the German Book Prize 2016.

Rights sold to:

Poland (Marpress)

»A wise and tender novel that asks what family truly means — skillfully crafted, clear, poetic, and compelling. And, with remarkable sensitivity, this gifted author has captured the heart of the Balkans and brought it into German.« Antonia Bontscheva
 
 
From Germany to Mostar, a journey into loss, courage, and the light of Herzegovina.
 
»One day we’ll come back, and then we’ll jump.« This was the promise a mother and daughter made to each other on the Old Bridge in Mostar — that heartbreakingly beautiful city with its painful history, the place where the mother had last been truly happy. But then, unexpectedly, Elise dies, and her daughter Rosa, in her mid-twenties, finds herself amid the wreckage of a fractured family history. Determined to keep the promise they once made, Rosa sets out on a journey through Eastern Europe, tracing the fault lines in her mother’s tumultuous life. Her adventure takes an unforeseen turn when she meets Emma, who is traveling to Mostar for entirely different — yet equally existential — reasons.
 
One Day We’ll Jump is a story of an intense mother–daughter bond and a search for the meaning of family — a wonderfully moving novel about grief, solace, and love in all its colors.
 
 
Gianna Lange, born in 1988 in Bremen, studied Journalism and Transnational Literary Studies in Bremen and London. She is a founding member of the poetry collective gabrieleschreibtgedichte, the young literature collective Kollit, and an editorial member of the literary magazine Koller. For the opening pages of her manuscript One Day We’ll Jump, she was awarded the Bremen Authors’ Grant. She lives in Bremen and works at the concert hall ›Die Glocke‹ as well as at the ›Musikfest Bremen‹.

Sold to: USA (Metropolitan/New York), Italy (Neri Pozza), Netherlands (Signature)

Two women of different ages with two different pasts:  an elderly survivor of the Holocaust and a young Jewish woman who for the fi rst time is confronted by the personal account of her family’s story.

Minka Pradelski, daughter of Holocaust survivors, a sociologist and documentary writer, has written a touching, humorous novel; a charming read about an almost forgotten time and about the drift between generations: the generation which survived the Holocaust and the generation of their children, who know little about that time and even less about the peaceful time »before«.

»And Along Came Mrs. Kugelmann« is the first novel by sociologist and documentary writer Minka Pradelski. She has been working for a project on the consequences of the massive trauma experienced by survivors of the Nazi regime. She has also been working as an honorary member for the Steven Spielberg Shoa Foundation and for several other social commissions of the Jewish community in Frankfurt where she lives. She has published several articles about Jewish life in the ghetto of Theresienstadt and of life in Germany after 1945.

In his early forties, Dave is married, a father of three children and living in Vienna. While his older son Max gets lost in the virtual worlds of computer games, smokes marihuana and neglects school, his daughter becomes ever more alienated from him as she hits puberty. His marriage is also falling apart. Dave feels isolated, he is haunted by nightmares and he worries about his youngest who spends his nights dreaming about a robot friend on an alien planet. Trying to understand his own dream world, Dave seeks the advice of a therapist. In the process, he becomes familiar with the concept of lucid dreaming and begins to experiment with this technique. His reality becomes more and more porous and the dream images become increasingly overwhelming. They take him back into his childhood, which he spent in New York City in the 1970s, and he immerses deeper and deeper into his parent’s stories. His father, with whom he has a difficult relationship, was an American businessman while his mother’s parents had to flee from the Nazis. The story that begins to emerge from these excursions becomes ever more puzzling, so Dave decides to talk to his only remaining relative in New York. It is this relative who reveals a well-kept family secret that ends up shedding a completely new light on his dreams.

Ruth Cerha’s hero of »Dream Rocket« follows the traces that his parent’s lives have left in his own by exploring the fascinating possibilities of dreams – enabling the dreamer to craft a bridge between the conscious and the subconscious. It is this bridge that provides him with the key to a chapter of his family history that was kept in the dark for so long.

Ruth Cerha, born in Vienna in 1963, studied psychology and was a musician and composer with a number of bands before starting to write prose in 2004. Following her novels »Head Out of the Clouds« (2010) and »One-Tenth Brothers« (2012 / 2018 FVA), Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt published »Bora. A Story of the Wind« (2015), for which she was awarded the Austrian State Scholarship for Literature.