Books: favorites for spring
Contemporary History: "The Cook" by Martin Suter
What a pity that you can not eat books. Martin Suter's new novel would be one of the first to be melted in the mouth. Cardamom, coconut oil, cinnamon, saffron and almonds: these are just some of the ingredients used by Maravan, a cooking genius from Sri Lanka, to bring revelations to the plate. His problem: he is Tamil and as an asylum seeker in Switzerland, he has to spend his days as a kitchen assistant - until he and a colleague open a catering service for love menus. His Ayurvedic kitchen secrets bring weary couples and business to life. But then one day, arms dealers also get the taste.
Suter skilfully combines the financial crisis, civil war and culinary art into an enthralling novel. With a strong finish: The appendix contains the recipes! (272 p., 21.90 euros, Diogenes) Angela Wittmann
Romantic novel: "Air and Love" by Anne Weber
Anne Weber, the woman who went from Offenbach to Paris 25 years ago and writes her books twice (first in German, then in French) has long been considered an insider tip. "Ida invents gunpowder" was the name of her debut about an idiosyncratic convention breaker, published in France in 1998, and published a year later. In Germany, Weber has already received several literary prizes, including "Gold in the Mouth" - a fine observation of the bizarre everyday folklore in the open-plan office. "Air and Love" is her first romance novel. And every sentence sounds so poetic and beautiful as if it were a love song, But the seeming ease of title and language is, of course, deception. What comes first in the guise of a wonderful romance, turns out to be tangible fraud story with a prince charmingwhich proves to be a total failure in the mills of reproductive medicine. To the pain of the fallen heroine, who experiences an emotional belly landing. And for the enjoyment of the readers, who are happy about the subtle irony of the author. Rarely has anyone written with such thieving pleasure about the bursting of illusions like Anne Weber. (188 p., 17.95 euros, S. Fischer) Franziska Wolffheim
Family novel: "The man who fell through the century" by Moritz Rinke
Paul Wendland-Kück has a few problems too much: His gallery in Berlin is not running, his mother sends him packages with gammligem salad from Lanzarote constantly, his girlfriend disappears to Barcelona. And he urgently needs to return to the place of his childhood, the artists' colony Worpswede, because the family estate of the Kücks threatens to collapse in the Teufelsmoor. Including the bronze statues of his grandfather, who was just posthumously named artist of the century. Unfortunately, the brown bog spits out more family secrets than Paul likes: portraits of Nazi greats, for example - and what happened to the beautiful Marie, who was allegedly picked up by the Gestapo just before the end of the war? And what role does Ohlrogge, an ex-boyfriend of Paul's mother, play in hating the Kücks since nearly forty years ago he impregnated their bridal party with the Gülles syringe and was financially ruined by the subsequent claim for damages?
That the author Moritz Rinke is actually a very successful playwright - his Niebelungen version opened in 2002 the newly launched festival in Worms - you notice immediately: He has a knack for the dramatic, the grotesque, and his novel reads like a thriller. Even if there are really quite important topics, such as artist and Nazism, repression and guilt. And as usual in modern director's theater, the tragicomedy unfortunately ends a bit drastic at the end. But one like that entertaining tour de force through the North German Plain you have to imitate Rinke first anyway. (469 p., 19.95 euros, Kiepenheuer & Witsch) Meike Schnitzler
Historical novel: "Grace" by Toni Morrison
Then a mother kneels in the dust and begs the strange white man to take her daughter with her, not herself. Because she realizes that the visitor sees her little Florens as a human child and not just as a piece of cattle. Slavery does not exist in 1675 in the New World. And Jacob Vaark, who actually wants nothing to do with trafficking, takes the girl from a debtor in payment, because his mother touches him. They will never meet again, the daughter will always feel offended. She has it well on Vaarks Farm, which is managed by four women in the middle of the wilderness. A community of the outcasts that works until the pups beat the farmer and also his wife gets ill. Florens loses all grip, and the ghosts of her past ruin her luck and her future ... Toni Morrison is not only Nobel laureate for literature, she tells such exciting and heartbreakingthat it would be hard to endure - if there were not their compassion for the children of men and victims of history, which always brings comfort and also hope. (T: Thomas Piltz, 224 p., 18.95 euros) Angela Wittmann
Debut: "Axolotl Roadkill" by Helene Hegemann
The book is annoying. Nevertheless, I read Axolotl Roadkill in one go. Powerful, obscene and hard, the novel describes a nightmarish self-destruction. Driven and adventurous, 16-year-old Mifti lurches through Berlin, talking about experiments with drugs, the search for some form of support, desperate sex and sadistic fantasies of abuse. Not to endure and then touching again.
The author Helene Hegemann, who turned 18 shortly after her book was published, polarized the critics with their crass and overblown milieu portrayal, And called the authenticity investigators on the plan. I have not read this book for a moment as a biography. But it hits a felt truth: In Mifti's rebellion against the left intellectual father, the crazy siblings, oh, actually against everything, I have found the memory of an almost forgotten fury of growing up. In the desire and purposefulness with which Hegemann breaks taboos lies a fascinating intrigue. The fact that the author has written off entire passages does not really bother me. Okay, she should have called the most important sources. But Even so, the idiosyncratic hardcore novel is a strong book, Nice that he was nominated for the price of the Leipzig Book Fair. (208 p., 14.95 euros, Ullstein) Claudia Kirsch
Humor: "Hummeldumm" by Tommy Jaud
At some point, Sina says, "So I put together a nice shit, did not we?" Right she has: The German-Austrian tour group, with whom she and her friend Matze drive on a bus through Namibia, is a catastropheOnly the black guide Bahee seems normal. That makes for comedy on all ends, especially when you follow Tommy Jaud's ride through half a dozen dialects. "Hummeldumm" is the first of his books that he reads as an audio book himself - the ex-radio man makes it great. His favorite dialect? "Needless of frustration, because I come here dord." But no matter whether you listened or quietly and quietly read yourself: This book is a lot of fun (320 p., 13.95 euros, joke) Stephan Bartels
Fantasy: "Sapphire Blue - Love goes through all times" by Kerstin Gier
Denis Scheck ("Druckfrisch", ARD) is a strict critic. Anyone who has ever seen how he knocks bestsellers into the bin has no doubt about it. But Chart striker Kerstin Gier was able to pass: "Because I have a weakness for time travel stories, I now get" Rubinrot "on the spot, the first volume of this quite amusing trilogy by Kerstin Gier." Do it like Denis check: read "ruby red" and "sapphire blue", Follow the young lovers Gwendolyn and Gideon through the centuries, and look forward to the third volume "Emerald Green" - even if it does not appear until the fall. (395 p., 15.95 euros, Arena) Angela Wittmann
Youth book: "The Prince of the Mist" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Zafon's legendary first novel, for which he received the Spanish Youth Literature Prize, is finally back. Out of print for years, "Der Fürst der Nebels" was only traded on the internet at ridiculous prices. In 1943, Max and his family moved from Paris to a tranquil coastal town to escape the war. What the family does not know, here lurks a very different danger. The son of the former owner of the old house drowned in tragic circumstances. Responsible for this seems to be a mysterious magician named Cain - so tells the old lighthouse keeper. Cain or even the prince of fog has many faces. Makes wishes come true, but demands a terrible return for it. Years ago he went down with a ship off the coast. And with him an unfulfilled promise. A breathtaking horror story with a final full of horrors, Conclusion: The pact with the devil is life-threatening. From 12 years. (T: Lisa Grüneisen, 270 p., 16.95 euros, Fischer) Anke-Maren Köster
Biography: "Confessions" by Nina Hagen
Everyone knows Nina Hagen, or at least she thinks she knows who or what she is: Punker, Rocker and Bürgerschreck. Her daughter Cosma Shiva recently found in the interview with ChroniquesDuVasteMonde the more affectionate word Bird of Paradise: "The dumb thing is that she always expresses herself so crazy that people do not listen properly and think she's crazy." In order to finally clarify things, Nina Hagen (56) has now - she always surprises us - written a book. She has called it "Confessions", to leave no doubt that she does not mince matters. Of course it's about sex, drugs, rock'n'roll, but also about - surprise succeeded - God, (280 p., 18,00 Euro, Pattloch) Simone Rickert
Crime: "Leopard" by Jo Nesbø
Three murder victims and no trace: The police in Oslo are beginning to panic. And brings back the drug-addicted top investigator Harry Hole, because he has taken - among personal victims - the last serial offender in Norway. Also this time, Hole finds a previously overlooked hint. In the end, his hunt leads him to one of the world's most perfidious murder tools ... Complex, profound and super exciting is the new Nesbø plant and with more than 700 pages quite extensive - but we do not want to miss any on the way to the surprising finale. (T: Günther Frauenlob and Maike Dörries, 700 p., 21, 95 euros, Ullstein) Stephan Bartels
