Category: Translation (German)

Auntie Poldi And The Fruits Of The Lord by Mario Giordano

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The Blurb On The Back:

WINE AND MURDER – nothing is more likely to rouse Auntie Poldi’s love of the chase.

Still relishing the notoriety from her spectacular resolution of the Candela case, Poldi is alive to the faintest whiff of criminality.

What to others might seem a series of misfortunes – the water supply cut off, a poisoned dog – is clearly, to Poldi, an escalation: the Mafia have had her in their sights ever since she solved Valentino’s murder.

Poldi has tasted blood.  No one is above suspicion.  And trouble will surely follow …

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

You can order AUNTIE POLDIE AND THE FRUITS OF THE LORD by Mario Giordano from Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or Bookshop.org UK.  I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

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Zen And The Art Of Murder by Oliver Bottini

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The Blurb On The Back:

Louise Boní, maverick chief inspector with the Black Forest crime squad, is struggling with her demons.  Divorced at forty-two, she is haunted by the ghosts of her past.

Dreading yet another dreary winter weekend alone, she receives a call from the departmental chief which signals the strangest assignment of her career – to trail a Japanese monk as he wanders through the snowy landscape to the east of Freiburg dressed only in sandals and a cowl.  She sets off reluctantly, and when she catches up with him, she finds that he is injured, fleeing some unknown evil – an evil so insidious that Louise Boní may never be free of its shadow. 

You can order ZEN AND THE ART OF MURDER by Oliver Bottini from Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or Bookshop.org UK.  I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

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Against Hate by Carolin Emcke

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The Blurb On The Back:

Racism, extremism, anti-democratic sentiment – our increasingly polarized world is dominated by a type of thinking that doubts others’ positions but never its own.

In a powerful challenge to fundamentalism in all its forms, Carolin Emcke, one of Germany’s leading intellectuals, argues that we can only preserve individual freedom and protect people’s rights by cherishing and celebrating diversity.  If we want to safeguard democracy, we must have the courage to challenge hatred and the will to fight for and defend plurality in our societies. Emcke rises to the challenge that identitarian dogmas and populist narratives pose, exposing the way in which they simplify and distort our perception of the world.

Against Hate is an impassioned call to fight intolerance and defend liberal ideals.  It will be of great interest to anyone concerned about the darkening politics of our time and searching for ways forward. 

You can order AGAINST HATE by Carolin Emcke from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or Bookshop.org UK.  I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

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One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning At The Beginning Of The Twenty-First Century by Roland Schimmerlpfennig

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The Blurb On The Back:

One clear ice-cold January morning shortly after dawn, a wolf crosses the border between Poland and Germany.  His trail leads all the way to Berlin, connecting the lives of disparate individuals whose paths intersect and diverge.

On an icy motorway eighty kilometres outside the city, a fuel tanker jack-knifes and explodes.  The lone wolf is glimpsed on the hard shoulder and photographed by Tomasz, a Polish construction worker who cannot survive in Germany without his girlfriend.  Elisabeth and Micha run away through the snow from their home village, crossing the wolf’s tracks on their way to the city.  A woman burns her mother’s diaries on a Berlin balcony.  And Elisabeth’s father, a famous sculptor, observes the vast skeleton of a whale in his studio and asks: What am I doing here?  And why?

Experiences and encounters flicker past with a raw, visual power, like frames in a black and white film.  Those who catch sight of the wolf see their own lives reflected, and find themselves searching for a different path in a cold time. 

You can order ONE CLEAR ICE-COLD JANUARY MORNING AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY by Roland Schimmerlpfennig from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Bookshop.org UK.  I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

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The Ascendancy Of Finance by Joseph Vogl

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The Blurb On The Back:

The global financial crisis of 2008 ushered in a system of informal decision-making in the grey zone between economics and politics.  Legitimised by a rhetoric of emergency, ad hoc bodies have usurped democratically elected governments.  In line with the neoliberal credo, the recent crisis has been used to re-align executive power with the interests of the finance industry.

In this important book, Joseph Vogl offers a longer perspective on these developments, showing how the dynamics of modern finance capitalism have always rested on a complex and constantly evolving relationship between private creditors and the state.  He argues that over the last three centuries, finance has become a ‘fourth power’, marked by the systematic interconnection of treasury and finance, of political and private economic interests.

The Ascendency Of Finance provides valuable and unsettling insight into the genesis of modern power and where it truly resides.

You can order THE ASCENDANCY OF FINANCE by Joseph Vogl from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or Bookshop.org UK.  I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

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Society Of Fear by Heinz Bude

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The Blurb On The Back:

From the rise of terrorism to the uncertainties associated with economic crisis and recession, our age is characterised by fear.  Fear is the expression of a society on unstable foundations.  Most of us feel that our social status is under threat and our future prospects in jeopardy.  We are overwhelmed by a sense of having been catapulted into a world to which we no longer belong.

Tracing this experience, Heinz Bude uncovers a society marked by disturbing uncertainty, suppressed anger and quiet resentment.  This is as true in our close relationships as it is in the world of work, in how we react to politicians as much as in our attitudes towards bankers and others in the financial sector.  Bude shows how this fear is not derived so much from a “powerful other” but rather from the seemingly endless range of possibilities that we face.  While this may seem to offer us greater autonomy and freedom, in reality the unknown impact and meaning of each option creates a vacuum which is filled by fear.

What conditions lead people to feel anxious and fearful for themselves and others?  How can individuals withstand fear and develop ways of making their fears intelligible?  Probing these and other questions, Bude provides a fresh analysis of some of the most fundamental features of our societies today. 

You can order SOCIETY OF FEAR by Heinz Bude from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or Bookshop.org UK.  I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

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The Cleaner by Elisabeth Herrmann

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The Blurb On The Back:

An unforgettable heroine. 

An unforgiveable past.

Pools of blood, scenes of carnage, signs of agonising death – who deals with the aftermath of violence once the bodies have been taken away?

Judith Kepler has seen it all.  She is a crime scene specialist.  She turns crime scenes back into habitable spaces.  She is a cleaner.  But when she is called to the home of a woman who has been brutally murdered, she is suddenly confronted with her own past.

As Judith begins to ask questions, she comes to the attention of former members of the Stasi, and becomes the target of some powerful enemies.  Will she be able to get to the truth whilst keeping the secret she’s held all these years? 

You can order THE CLEANER by Elisabeth Herrmann from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or Bookshop.org UK.  I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

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