Felice Picano: Fred in Love

USA 2005, 100 pp., hardback, € 13.99
Kostenloser Versand ab 20 Euro Bestellwert.
In the early 1970s, when he was still an aspiring, unpublished writer, Felice Picano began a remarkable relationship with an extraordinary animal: a days-old kitten slated for euthanasia who refused to perish. Rescued, named, and trained, Fred became an extraordinarily intelligent companion, ally, teacher, and constant wonder to the author as he began his ascent through the Bohemian circles of Greenwich Village, among musicians, actors, curious characters, and even the famous British actress in hiding right next door. But when an acquaintance brought his female cat to be serviced by Fred, an entire new set of experiences opened up for the cat—and for Picano, who’d never had the nerve to befriend her owner, his ideal man. The course of love seldom runs straight for cats or for men, and this time would prove (hilariously) no different.

Alan Sheridan: Time and Place

UK 2004, 488 pp., brochure, € 13.89
Kostenloser Versand ab 20 Euro Bestellwert.
The narrator of this narrative is Mark Sheridan. Born into the theatrical family of his uncle, R.B Sheridan, he recounts his years with a traveling theatre company, and his turbulent love affair with Edmond, a young actor. Interwoven are flashbacks to his turbulent earlier life and a pre-war world long vanished, his childhood in China, his schooldays in Paris, the months in St Petersburg at the beginning of the 1905 revolution, threading through them all, his awakening sexuality. For men such as he, these were dangerous times. Ruin and imprisonment were their oft companions. The narrator describes his erotic experiences and his passion for the theatre with a wealth of frank and sometimes startling detail, and his apologia, in the last pages, is a stark reminder of the literary and legal constraints which bound his contemporaries.

Timothy J. Beck: I'm Your Man

USA 2004, 376 pp., brochure, € 11.49
Kostenloser Versand ab 20 Euro Bestellwert.
At thirtysomething, Blaine Dunhill has a great career in fashion advertising, a fab NYC apartment, and some loyal friends that he's trying to share amicably with his ex, a famous soap star. Working in the big-time cosmetics world is all about glamour and artifice (»Like Barbies that can talk«), but what the self-professed nice guy from Wisconsin really wants is something and someone real to come home to. And then his best friend Gretchen makes him a really tempting offer: since neither one of them has found the real thing yet, why don't they start a family together? Suddenly, as life becomes a whirl of ultrasounds, online baby registries, baby names (Civil Liberty, anyone?), and other adjustments. Blaine finds out that no one is more attractive than an expectant father.

Tom Dolby: The Trouble Boy

USA 2005, 264 pp., brochure, € 13.69
Kostenloser Versand ab 20 Euro Bestellwert.
At 22, Toby Griffin wants it all - fame, fortune, an Oscar-winning screen-play and a good-looking boyfriend by his side. For now, what he's got is a freelance writing job at a tanking online magazine, a walk-up sublet in the East Village and »the boys«, a young posse of preppy Upper East Siders with a taste for high fashion, top-shelf liquor and other men. But for Toby, downing vodka cranberries and falling in and out of lust with a series of guys is getting old. That all changes when Toby gets the chance of a lifetime - working as a personal assistant to hip, ruthless film mogul, Cameron Cole. In this decadent, drug-fueled world of VIP lounges, endless networking and relentless hype, Toby discovers that anyone can be spun into PR gold.

Christine Wunnicke: Die Kunst der Bestimmung

D 2005, 302 S., Tb, € 9.15
Kostenloser Versand ab 20 Euro Bestellwert.
Der schwedische Naturwissenschaftler Simon Chrysander wir Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts von der Royal Society nach London geholt, um dort deren Sammlung zu ordnen. Einer der Förderer der Royal Society ist der junge Lord Lucius Fearnall. Lucius ist von Chrysander gefesselt und versucht mit allen Mitteln, dessen Aufmerksamkeit zu erringen. Chrysanders Gefühle hingegen sind zerrissen zwischen Faszination und Abscheu. Es kommt zu einem Duell zwischen den beiden, bei dem Lucius schwer verwundet wird. Chrysander nimmt sich seiner an, pflegt ihn gesund und es beginnt eine leidenschaftliche Beziehung der beiden. Doch für Lucius ist das immer noch nicht genug ... nach »Fortesques Fabrik« und »Die Nachtigall des Zaren« wieder ein schwuler Roman von Christine Wunnicke.

Hubert Fichte: Die Palette

D 2005, 344 Seiten, Pb, € 10.18
Kostenloser Versand ab 20 Euro Bestellwert.
Die »Palette« ist ein Hamburger Kellerlokal, ein Treffpunkt von Außenseitern. Schwule, Prostituierte, Gammler, Gauner, Strichjungen und entlassene Häftlinge treten auf und reden über Dinge, die beim Erscheinen des Romans 1968 nicht nur einen Skandal auslösten, sondern Verlag und Autor etliche Klagen einbrachten. Später bekamen die unangepassten Männer und Frauen das hübsche Etikett »Beat Generation«. Der Roman »Die Palette« ist freilich eine wilde und authentische Abfolge von Szenen in der Jäcki sich endgültig vom Detlev der Vergangenheit emanzipiert.

David Sedaris: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

USA 2004, 245 pp., pb, € 9.95
Kostenloser Versand ab 20 Euro Bestellwert.
Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his brother's wedding. He mops his sister's floor. He gives directions to a lost traveler. He eats a hamburger. He has his blood sugar tested. It all sounds so normal, doesn't it? In his new collection of personal essays, David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives - a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the highest form of love. The book is another unforgettable collection from one of the wittiest and most original writers at work today. Now available in the US paperback edition.

Jürgen Lagger: Öffnungen

Ö 2005, 125 S., geb., € 16.00
Kostenloser Versand ab 20 Euro Bestellwert.
Der 1967 in Villach geborene und jetzt in Wien lebende Jürgen Lagger legt nach seinem Erstlingsroman »Kreuzblütler« nun sein zweites Buch »Öffnungen« vor. In dieser Erzählung trifft der Leser auf einen ziemlich exzentrischen Protagonisten, dessen Welt gerade zu zerfallen beginnt, weil sein Lebens- und Denksystem durch »Öffnungen« bedroht wird. Mit Voranschreiten der Geschichte verrennt sich L. in eine bizarre und für sich selbst umfassende Wahnidee. In dieser Wahnwelt wimmelt es von Ameisen, die in L.s Wohnung auftauchen. L.s Denken fixiert die Gebärmaschine Ameisenkönigin. Auch zerbrechende Eierschalen nehmen eine zentrale Rolle für L. ein. Am Ende zieht der Protagonist brutale Konsequenzen und findet dabei ein fatal glückliches Ende.