Literary Fiction Political

In neun Episoden erzählt Cemile Sahin von neun Menschen, die ihr Exil in einem Hochhaus im Westen der Türkei finden. Sie alle haben Folter, Gewalt und Verschleppung durch Einheiten der türkischen Armee und der Polizei erlebt. Darunter: Eine Mutter, die ihren toten Sohn auf einen Pick-up lädt. Ein Mann, der seine schlafende Tochter draußen ins Gebüsch legt, bevor er sein Haus anzündet. Eine Frau, die angekettet in einer Hundehütte gehalten wird. Während sie von ihrer Flucht berichten, holt sie der systematische Terror des türkischen Militärs wieder ein.

Gebäude lassen sich abtragen und neu aufbauen, Erinnerungen nicht. Jan und seine Eltern sprechen nicht viel über das Heute und erst recht nicht über das Gestern. Erst als Herr Kern auftaucht, gerät das fragile Gleichgewicht der Familie ins Wanken: Welche Beziehung führte Jans Mutter mit dem Vater von Herrn Kern? Und was haben die Kerns mit der Kunst von Georg Baselitz zu tun? Immer weiter arbeitet sich Jan durch das Schweigen mehrerer Generationen, taucht ein in die Geschichte der Baselitz-Brüder, die Geschichte seiner Eltern und begreift, dass die Gegenwart nicht nur aus der eigenen Vergangenheit besteht.

Stoyo Petkanov, the deposed Party leader, is placed on trial for crimes that range from corruption to political murder. Petkanov's guilt - and the righteousness of his opponents - would seem to be self-evident. But, as brilliantly imagined by Barnes, the trial of this cunning and unrepentant dictator illuminates the shadowy frontier between the rusted myths of the Communist past and a capitalist future in which everything is up for grabs.

In South Africa, the controversial topic of botched traditional circumcisions has been very much in the news of late. A Man Who Is Not a Man recounts the personal trauma of a young Xhosa initiate after a rite-of-passage circumcision has gone wrong. With frankness and courage, author Thando Mgqolozana's powerful novel details the pain and lifelong shame that is experienced as a result of not just the physical trauma, but the social ostracism of being labeled "a failed man".

With a nod to Samuel Beckett and Bohumil Hrabal, a young dramatist from a West African nation describes a student protest against a brutal oligarchy and its crushing aftermath. While distributing leaflets with provocative quotations from Beckett, Ito Baraka is taken to a camp where torture, starvation, beatings, and rape are normal. Forced to inform on his friends, whose fates he now fears, and released a broken man, he is enabled to escape to Quebec. His one goal is to tell the story of the protest and pay homage to Koli Lem, a teacher, cellmate, and lover of books....

Blood Republic is a political-thriller for a divided modern America. Corrupt politicians, biased media, NSA surveillance, and viral hate; Blood Republic examines extremism through a heart-pumping thriller with the fate of the country at stake. Will America survive its next election or collapse into a second civil war of conservative versus liberal?

In the life of every country, at a moment of extreme national disruption, there is a brief period of breakdown, when everything is uncertain, events can turn on a dime. That is the moment to act, to shape events how you want them to go. That is Minute Zero.

Regretting his affair with a Republican journalist, Ralph becomes caught in the middle of a political controversy when his former lover's tell-all book is published, and then Bill is murdered, leaving Ralph the prime suspect in the crime.

The United States is on the brink of war. It's August, 2023, and political unrest is sweeping the nation. Banking giant Citi-Chase-Capitol-Morgan has bought out the government, the Internet is censored, and hardcore conservatives have joined the New Secession Coalition. It is a dark time for America. However, somewhere in the Mojave Desert, once voice has dared to stand up to corruption. His name is John Herald.

In the twilight years of Communist East Germany, Bruno Krug, author of a single world-famous novel written twenty years earlier, falls for Theresa Aden, a music student from the West. But Theresa has also caught the eye of a cocky young scriptwriter who delights in satirizing Krug’s work. Asked to appraise a mysterious manuscript, Bruno is disturbed to find that the author is none other than his rival. Disconcertingly, the book is good—very good.

Screenwriter, playwright, and novelist Stephen Miller crafts this harrowing tale about two people on opposite ends of the war on terror. Daria, an Iraqi refugee, has lost everything she holds dear - and now seeks revenge on those responsible. Recruited for a dangerous mission, she boards a plane to New York with instructions to make contact with - and infect - as many people as possible. Meanwhile, American scientist Dr. Sam Watterman is asked by the government to help locate a new threat.

Darcy, a restless young artist, travels to the Soviet Union to visit his elusive half-sister, Fin. Upon his arrival in the depths of a bleak Moscow winter, Darcy is immediately embroiled in Fin's mysterious life there and also drawn to Moscow's forbidden underground, finding himself swept up in political and sexual intrigues of a nature he could never have imagined.

When a nameless, struggling actor in 1970s New York gets the call that an enigmatic director wants him for an art film set in the Amazon, he doesn't hesitate: He flies to South America, no questions asked. He quickly realizes he's made a mistake. He's replacing another actor who quit after seeing the script - a script the director now claims doesn't exist. The movie is over budget. The production team seems headed for a breakdown. The air is so wet that the celluloid film disintegrates.

In Canberra, a federal election looms and Cassius Calvert, Minister for Border Integrity, is facing a new hard-line policy regarding asylum-seekers. Off the Indonesian island of Dana, Isi Natoli, skipper of the Java Ridge, and a group of Australian surf tourists are anchored beside an idyllic reef. A few kilometres away, Roya and her mother are amongst the passengers fleeing persecution aboard the Talakar. When a storm breaks, these stories collide with chilling consequences....

Here are fine-drawn, empathetic portraits of the often overlooked actors of America’s infinite global war: the ridiculed night editor of a prestigious newspaper, an overburdened nuclear engineer, a duty-bound female fighter pilot, a religiously impassioned novice reporter, a sergeant major thrust into the responsibilities of a secretive command. Their longings and loyalties take us, in the course of one shattering year. Told in language as stunning for its beauty as for its verisimilitude, The Room and the Chair dazzlingly bends the conventions of literary suspense .

Dr. Jake Ross, a university astronomer, wants nothing more than to teach a few classes each semester and continue his research. Instead, he finds himself aggressively recruited to be the science advisor to Frank Tomlinson, an ambitious politician with his eye on the US Senate. Tomlinson is in need of an edge that will allow him to defeat his opponent at the polls, and Dr. Ross can contribute just that: MHD. MHD, or magnetohydrodynamics, is a new innovation that will allow electricity to be generated efficiently and cheaply. But MHD is still in its infancy, and there are deadly risks.

In rural Turkey, Meryem is raped by her uncle. Outcast for shaming her family, she is expected to kill herself. Her commando cousin instead tells her he will take her to Istanbul. By chance, they meet Irfan, a celebrity professor who has left his wife, and the three embark on a journey that shows what unexpected things can happen in the space between wounded people.

The novel takes us both forward and back in time, creating a panoramic view of the family’s history: from Alexander’s grandparents’ return to the GDR to build the socialist state, to his father’s decade spent in a gulag for criticizing the Soviet regime, to his son’s desire to leave the political struggles of the twentieth century in the past.

When the celebrated Russian-born architect Roman Guttman is injured in a bus bombing, his perceptions become heightened and disturbed, leading him on an ill-advised journey into Palestinian territory. His odyssey alternates with the bittersweet diary of his teenage daughter Anyusha - on her own perilous path - and the startlingly alive observations of Amir, the young Palestinian who pushed the button and is now damned to watch the havoc he has wrought from a shaky beyond.

The tumultuous presidential campaign of Thomas Crane, a charismatic but elusive senator from the midwest, presents reporter Cliff O'Connell with a career-making opportunity. Originally given little chance to succeed, Crane's dark-horse candidacy suddenly takes off, and O'Connell is on the inside, traveling with the candidate across America. But O'Connell is caught in a brutal triangle, torn between personal and political passions and his commitment to the truth.