'The house groaned. Usually it groaned once between three and four in the morning, and sometimes again at around four thirty. The sound woke Leon and Martina up on their first few nights. Then they integrated it into their dreams, which from now on were full of creaking bridges and falling trees. There was also the new wallpaper. It did not stay stuck on well everywhere. Water oozed from the wall in various places, dissolving the paste or leaving tidemarks like unsightly patches of sweat. Water dripped down the insides of the window frames. "It will get better when it stops raining," said Leon.' When Leon Ulbricht lands a contract to write a gangster's memoirs and moves into his dream home in an East German village with his beautiful wife Martina, everything seems set for an idyllic existence. But the dream home turns out to be in the middle of a fetid swamp; his house and his marriage are falling apart; he can't write the book he needs to write and has spent all his advance. It rains without end and their attempts to repair the house, or at least dry it out, are hampered by the plague of slugs eating away at the garden and the foundations.And then the gangster, wondering why his memoirs are not yet completed, decides to get nasty

Rain

Literature & Fiction

Duve, Karen

Contemporary

TRAFALGAR SQUARE +

An international bestseller already translated into nine languages, Karen Duve's disturbing and hilarious debut is not for the squeamish-or anyone with snail phobia. When Leon Ulbricht lands a contract to write a gangster's memoirs and moves into his dream home in a small East German village with his beautiful wife Martina, everything seems set for an idyllic existence. But the dream home turns out to be in the middle of a fetid marsh, his house and his marriage are falling apart, he can't write the book he needs to write, and before he knows it, he's spent the last penny of his advance. On top of all this, it rains without end, and Leon and Martina's attempts to repair the house, or at least dry it out, are hampered by the plague of slugs eating away at the garden and the foundations. And just when it looks as though things couldn't possibly get any worse, the gangster, wondering why his memoirs still have not been completed, decides to get nasty.

Bloomsbury USA

The year is 2031 and all the dire predictions of environmentalists are coming true: extreme weather bringing storms, floods and intense heat; and the genetically modified 'killer rape' is rampant everywhere. A rejuvenation pill has been developed but no one is going to enjoy eternal youth for long: the experts forecast that the world's ecosystems will collapse in five years' time. Women have taken over power to try and save the world from the mess men have got it in. But there is opposition in the form of the MASCULO movement that is aiming to reassert male power by violent means if necessary. At the same time apocalyptic sects are proliferating. Sebastian, the central figure in this novel, appears to be one of the good guys, a Greenpeace activist in his youth, he now has an important position in the Democracy Centre. But in his private life he is attempting to restore his male pride: for the last two years he has kept his wife locked up in the cellar. But his attempts to do away with her so he can live with his new love lead to disaster

The Prepper Room (Dedalus Europe)

Literary

Dedalus Limited

Macht: Roman

Goldmann Verlag

Taxifahren können viele - doch grandios darüber schreiben kann nur Karen Duve 
Eine ziellose Jugend, eine spießige Familie, eine frustrierende Ausbildung - da kommt die Annonce "Taxifahrerin gesucht" schon fast wie die Rettung schlechthin daher. Auch wenn Alex Herwig leider ein Gedächtnis wie ein Sieb hat. Trotzdem büffelt sie Straßennamen und Wegstrecken - und hat das Glück auf einen extrem gnädigen Prüfer zu treffen. Bald sitzt sie zum ersten Mal im Wagen und schwitzt Blut und Wasser, weil sie die Straße nicht kennt, nach der ihr erster Fahrgast fragt. Und Alex wird - halb wider Willen - von einer Kollegen-Clique aufgesogen, die aus abgebrochenen Studenten, gescheiterten Künstlern, misanthropischen Gar-nicht-Akademikern und frauenfeindlichen Verklemmten besteht - bis sie Marco trifft, einen extrem kleingewachsenen aber umso bestimmter agierenden jungen Mann ... 
Karen Duve erzählt mit gewohnter Brillanz, Lakonie und Unbarmherzigkeit von einer jungen Frau, der das Leben nichts schenkt, die einen Beruf hat, in dem sie andauernd Leute trifft, denen das Leben erst recht nichts schenkt. Komisch, erbarmungslos, ehrlich bis auf die Knochen: Ein waschechter Duve-Roman. 
"Ich meldete mich auf eine Anzeige, in der nicht nur Taxifahrer, sondern ausdrücklich auch Taxifahrerinnen gesucht wurden. 1983 war es in Stellenanzeigen noch nicht üblich, jedem Beruf auch eine weibliche Endung anzufügen. Man tat es nur, wenn man andeuten wollte, dass man praktisch jeden nahm."

Taxi: Roman

Fräulein Nettes kurzer Sommer

Kiepenheuer & Witsch GmbH

Macht

Galiani, Verlag

Fräulein Nettes kurzer Sommer: Roman (German Edition)

Galiani

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