Rightslist

»Book Four is a piece of program music – a globally considered lyrical report.« Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»Book Four « / »Buch Vier« starts in September 2001 right in the middle of a typhoon in the Taiwanese metropolis of Taipeh, the CNN-pictures of 9/11 in the background, and ends in New York before Ground Zero. Infused with the traumatic beginning of the new century Gräf's poems position poetry as a contemporary art form. In four chapters, between the southeast asian upbeat and the American finale, the old world, Venice, Rome and Vézelay in particular, is being explored.
At their centre, the poems deal with death, from which a life and its meaning can be conceived. The art historian Winckelmann, the poet and filmmaker Pasolini, the radical left-wing publisher Feltrinelli, the fascist dictator Mussolini and the Black Muslim icon Malcolm X – they all have in common a mysterious, iridescent untimely end.

Dieter M. Gräf, born in 1960, lives in Berlin.

The Portrait is an impressive and breathtaking novel about a young woman whose outstanding artistic talent is uncannily exploited by a famous art collector.

Helen, a young painter, is on her way to an unknown city. Through the window of the plane, she gazes at the unfamiliar places below: somewhere down there is the house that she is going to spend the next three months in, invited by a well-known and rich art collector.
She is supposed to portray him. One condition of their contract is that she is not allowed to leave his property during her stay. Whilst the portrait progresses, Helen's feeling of unease increases. The huge villa is deserted. The employees give her the cold shoulder. Her trips into the wide, park-like estate show her that something strange must be going on. The initial idyll turns into a disaster. Her host controls her and regards her as his personal trophy. She finds out that he once supported a young artist, who subsequently committed suicide. When she tries to escape, the collector knowingly prevents her getaway. However, in the end, Helen manages to save herself.

Zoë Jenny was born in Basel in 1974 and spent parts of her childhood in Greece and Ticino. Her first novel, »The Pollen Room« (FVA 1997), was a global bestseller and has been translated into 27 languages. Following this success, Zoë Jenny was invited to give readings and talks at schools and universities in Japan, China and the U.S. She has lived in New York, Berlin and London, and currently resides in Austria. She has published two more novels – »The Call of the Conch Shell« (FVA 2000) and »The Portrait« (FVA 2007). »Spätestens morgen« is her first short story collection.

As the year 2006 comes to an end, Gustav von Achenbach, a German cultural sociologist and expert on post-colonial architecture, travels to Havana and finds that the city – and the political dreams connected with it – has undergone much change. »Maybe it was the moral decay that fascinated him more than the physical deterioration. It was the erosion of a system which, in a far-away past, had represented and incarnated adolescent hope from all around the globe.« Since that time, in light of the visible corrosion, the protagonist must revise his youthful enthusiasm: the city of Havana, once grand, is now in ruins, the dictator Fidel Castro is dying. Cuban life, however, goes on – Havana is full of heat. Aimlessly, Achenbach walks the dirty streets, pushes himself through the colorful, fun-loving crowds – every street corner offers quick sex. Yet Achenbach is looking for someone in particular: a mysterious young man. His search becomes a desperate one, which leads him down stray paths, until he finally finds the embrace which he has been yearning for his whole life.

The author Hans Christoph Buch lives in Berlin but has visited Cuba regularly for three decades. He has had insight into the country and people of Cuba and even taught at the University of Havana. His novel is an attempt to rewrite Thomas Mann's famous novella »Death in Venice«, inspired by the background of the excruciatingly long agony of the »máximo líder« Fidel Castro and the political system he created. The author can not – and does not want to – elude the morbid charm of this leader and his system.

His book is a declaration of his love of Cuba, but also challenges the unconditional Cuba-enthusiasm of leftist »revolution tourists«, amounting to political and literary provocation.

In 1963, at the age of 19, Hans Christoph Buch became the youngest-ever member of the influential German literary association »Gruppe 47«. He has written numerous political reports and essays, primarily about Caribbean and African conflict zones. His publications with the Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt are the novella »Tod in Habana« and the novel »Reise um die Welt in acht Nächten«. Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt also published »Elf Arten, das Eis zu brechen« (2016) and the essay »Boat People. Literatur als Geisterschiff« (2014).

Nora Bossong in »Herabout« draws vivid portraits for a bizarre intimate play, which is resolved sparingly, but generates a strong pull towards the reader. Bossong writes in a laconic tone that is – in a unique and fortunate way – unlike the suspense it creates.

Nora Bossong was born in 1982 in Bremen and now lives in Berlin. She has been awarded several prizes and scholarships. An extract from »Hereabout« has been awarded the Leipzig Literary Scholarship and a Scholarship of the Jürgen-Ponto-Foundation. »Herabout« has been her first novel published by FVA, followed by »Weber's Record«.

Ernst-Wilhelm Händler portrays the narcissistic struggle for power of three writers: two men and a woman. He discusses the ethics of being a writer and the relationship between fictional and virtual identity.

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

Claire Beyers novel »Remis« / »Drawn Game« narrates with breathless excitement the story of two couples, whose paths of life are bound up inseparably at one fell swoop. Suspense and reflection, poetic charm and harsh reality balance each other and repeatedly take the reader by surprise.

Claire Beyer was born in 1947 and lives in Markgröningen near Ludwigsburg. She has written a musical about Camille Claudel and published numerous novels and short stories including, »Rauken«, »Rosenhain«, »Rohlinge« and »Refugium«.

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.

Claire Beyer's second book consists of six mysterious, beautiful, finely worked, subtle and deep love stories about our five senses. They deal with the way in which our feelings are blind towards those we love. Five of the stories are dedicated to one of the human senses, and the sixth deals with thought, gathering up the essence of the first five stories and all our senses into thought.

Claire Beyer was born in 1947 and lives in Markgröningen near Ludwigsburg. She has written a musical about Camille Claudel and published numerous novels and short stories including, »Rauken«, »Remis«, »Rohlinge« and »Refugium«.

Liz tells her own story of how she left Germany with just two suitcases and a doctoral grant, and with great hopes of settling in a small North American university town. She quickly realises how hard this will be, but also becomes aware of it becoming increasingly hard to consider returning to Germany. Her home becomes foreign but she cannot feel at home in a foreign country. She makes her inner wish to become a writer the new centre of her life, and begins to search for her family roots. This develops into a dangerous process for her, guided by coincidence.

Christa Hein was born in 1955 in Cuxhaven and lives in Berlin. Her debut novel »Der Blick durch den Spiegel« was publsihed by FVA in 1998 and became a huge success – it has been followed by »Scirocco« (FVA 2000) and »Der Glasgarten« in 2015.