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      • Atrium Verlag | Arche Literatur Verlag | WooW Books

        Atrium Verlag was founded 1935 in Switzerland in order to be able to continue publishing Erich Kästner's work, who was by then a forbidden author in the so-called Third Reich. Since the beginning Kästner's children's books are a world-wide success story and continue to fascinate readers in more than 25 countries all over the world. Moreover, he has written famous poem collections and adult novels reaching a broad audience. Atrium has started to publish more children's books that share Kästner's spirit and instantly connect with our young readers. Furthermore, Atrium publishes important contemporary fiction, mystery and non-fiction. WooW Books is focussed on children's books for readers aged 6-11, ranging from timeless classics to modern adventures and unconventional stories. As the name suggests, the program stands for special and surprising children´s literature that conjures a »wow-feeling« while reading. Arche Literatur Verlag is a traditional literary publisher that started in the 1940s with authors such as Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Max Frisch and Gottfried Benn. Today Arche publishes novels by outstanding international and German writers, telling stories about the rich variety of human relationships. Arche aims to reach women readers of all ages, both through content and through clear cover designs. The core of the brand is the “rich variety of human relationships” – deliberately targeting a female readership that feels addressed and entertained in a unique way by Arche.

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      • Trusted Partner
        December 2025

        The Ynagtze Flows East

        by ZHANG HENSHUI

        This book is adapted from real people and facts. It carefully depicts the bloody atrocities of defending the Zhonghua Gate and the massacre of Nanjing soldiers and civilians by the Japanese army, and makes a living record of the bloodthirsty crimes of the invaders. Among them, the description of young soldiers' love and marriage and the righteousness of choice is a true portrayal of the author's insistence on resisting Japan and to die for the country.

      • Trusted Partner
        July 2021

        The World of the North

        Between Ragnarok and welfare utopia: A cultural-historical deconstruction

        by Bernd Henningsen

        — Analysis of how we view Europe's North and how this image emerged — An outsider's perspective on Nordic societies and their self image — Serves as an introduction into Northern European culture and society Our image of Northern Europe has been shaped by projections and desires in the long history of encounters: berserkers and war atrocities, bad weather, beautiful nature, stable political systems, social welfare, equality and prosperity, peacefulness, low corruption, hygge and Bullerby – all this is part of the Nordic narrative. But what about the religious, linguistic and ethnic homogeneity, what about the muchvaunted Nordic cooperation? How do politics "work" in the North? Why are Northern Europeans the happiest people?

      • Trusted Partner
        True stories
        2020

        ISOLATION. Secret prisons of Donbas in the stories by people saved from torture and death

        by Daria Bura, Iryna Vovk

        The book of recollections of those, who went through hell and survived: prisoners of Donetsk and Luhansk prisoners, infamous "Isolation", Donbas colonies. These are the stories of those who were exchanged as prisoners of war on December 29, 2019, those who kissed the Ukrainian land at the "Maiorsk" checkpoint. Despite the controversy over the exchange itself, those who sacrificed their lives, families, peace, and health returned home. Ukrainian soldiers, journalists, bloggers, military aides, doctors, and locals talk about the life "before" and "after", about the life of Donbas during the war, about the atrocities and crimes of militants, about the horrors and tortures in captivity.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        December 2018

        Misery and Strength

        a war that changed China's fate

        by Peng Yulong

        The beginning of this book begins with the source of the suffering of modern China, fully discusses the different developments between modern China and Japan, and extends to the beginning and process of the War of Resistance Against Japan. It reproduces the panorama of the Chinese people's 14 years of resistance to the Japanese invaders and profoundly illustrates that China as a peaceful and backward The hardships and difficulties of defeating the imperialist countries explained China's contribution in this great historical battle and the important role of the Communist Party of China and the people. And by showing a series of difficult and tortuous struggles of the Chinese people and the atrocities of the Japanese invaders, through the stark contrast of the situation of China ’s socioeconomic culture before and after the confrontation, it truly reflects the profound disasters and losses suffered by the Chinese nation in detail, and fully reflects This shows the tremendous contributions and sacrifices made by the Chinese people for national independence and justice.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        June 2004

        Secret Shakespeare

        Studies in theatre, religion and resistance

        by Richard Wilson

        Shakespeare's Catholic context was the most important literary discovery of the last century. No biography of the Bard is now complete without chapters on the paranoia and persecution in which he was educated, or the treason which engulfed his family. Whether to suffer outrageous fortune or take up arms in suicidal resistance was, as Hamlet says, 'the question' that fired Shakespeare's stage. In 'Secret Shakespeare' Richard Wilson asks why the dramatist remained so enigmatic about his own beliefs, and so silent on the atrocities he survived. Shakespeare constructed a drama not of discovery, like his rivals, but of darkness, deferral, evasion and disguise, where, for all his hopes of a 'golden time' of future toleration, 'What's to come' is always unsure. Whether or not 'He died a papist', it is because we can never 'pluck out the heart' of his mystery that Shakespeare's plays retain their unique potential to resist. This is a fascinating work, which will be essential reading for all scholars of Shakespeare and Renaissance studies. ;

      • Trusted Partner

        The Sun Will Rise Tomorrow

        Child's View of the Holocaust

        by Irit Dror-Reytan

        The Sun Will Rise Tomorrow is not a conventional book about  the holocaust. It does not describe the atrocities of WW2, especially towards the Jewish people. Instead, the writer tells a story of her own life from a personal view as a chid, during that period. With the gentle strokes of an artist, the author paints the scenery of her childhood in Nazi-occupied Poland, from age three to six, describing events as she perceived them at the time from a child's point of view. Her peaceful and happy country life is crushed by the occupation of Nazi Germany. On a cold and rainy night, our heroine evades the firing squad that annihilates most of her family; her mother joins the partisans, her father is deported to Auschwitz, and she finds herself all alone, hidden in a wicker basket, with a Christian peasant family. After liberation and an incredible reunion with her mother, in an attempt to rehabilitate life, the child becomes the mother and is forced to mature instantly. She takes responsibility for her mother and herself in a daily struggle to survive. Then, an impossible surprise strikes! The purpose of this book is to deliver a message to children who were abused, in any way, not to give in, not to lose hope—the sun will rise tomorrow! Irit Dror-Reytan was born on September 22, 1939, in Boryslav, Poland. After the war she lived in Waldenburg, Poland, until 1950 when her family immigrated to Israel. She was educated in Tabeetha Jaffa, a Church of Scotland school. The Author completed her studies at the Israel Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv. She received a B.A. from Queens College in New York and a Master’s degree in psychology from Lesley University in Boston. Irit taught music and English for many years. For the last twenty years, she has been treating IDF soldiers suffering from PTSD. The author has four children, seven grandchildren and lives with her husband in Israel. 128 Pages, 15X22.5 CM

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        November 2022

        The violence of colonial photography

        by Daniel Foliard

      • Trusted Partner
        Art treatments & subjects
        January 2010

        Understanding heritage and memory

        by Tim Benton

        Written by an interdisciplinary team of scholars, this authoritative text explores the emotive issues surrounding the commemoration of war and atrocity, and the profound challenges for conservators posed by 'virtual', 'intangible' and 'multicultural' heritage. New international case studies demonstrate that while interest in the memorialisation of the great national upheavals of the last century has never been more acute, many of the problems of conserving the past in diverse and disparate societies remain to be resolved. Aimed primarily at students in heritage studies and professionals in heritage industries, this book is one of three in the Understanding Global Heritage series.

      • Trusted Partner
        Sport & leisure industries
        September 2004

        New Horizons in Tourism

        Strange Experiences and Stranger Practices

        by Edited by Tej V Singh

        Tourism as a dynamic phenomenon has a wonderful capacity to change, adapt and evolve. At the beginning of the 21st Century we are witnessing a growing demand from tourists for amazing and bizarre experiences, and more extreme and unusual environments. Written by leading researchers from around the world, New Horizons in Tourism, examines this new wave of tourism. It presents a host of examples of out-of-the-ordinary tourism including cutting-edge tourism activities such as vacationing in space and discovering the forbidden lands of Antarctica and Arctic regions. It also explores the trends of pro-poor and volunteer tourism, ecotourism, the rise in the number of footloose senior citizens, and the growing attraction of areas of conflict and atrocity.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2012

        Thinking towards humanity

        Themes from Norman Geras

        by David Aaronovitch, Stephen de Wijze, Ophelia Benson, Eve Gerrard, Gideon Calder

        How should we respond to the inhumanity that suffused the twentieth Century and continues in the present one? Has there been an adequate treatment of this issue by the political left? Questions such as these are treated in this, the first scholarly book to combine academic and blogging approaches to some of the major political issues of the day. It does this by focusing on the work of Norman Geras - Marxist, political philosopher and blogger - and developing the central themes of his work such as crimes against humanity, the Holocaust, Marxism, and the means/ends problem in politics. It contains contributions by famous political philosophers such as Michael Walzer, Hillel Steiner and David McLennan, and bloggers and journalists such as David Aaronovitch, Nick Cohen and Ophelia Benson. The book contains a unique response by Geras in which he draws together the various themes it covers. It will be of interest to all who are concerned with these pressing political issues of our time. The book will be particularly relevant for those with an academic or general interest in politics, philosophy, sociology, genocide studies, applied ethics, international relations and law. It will also be of interest to bloggers and all those who regard new technology as having significant implications for public debate on these issues. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA
        January 2015

        Hatless

        by Lateefa Buti / Illustrated by Doha Al Khteeb

        Kuwaiti children’s book author Lateefa Buti’s well-crafted and beautifully illustrated children’s book, Hatless, encourages children (ages 6-9) to think independently and challenge rigid traditions and fixed rituals with innovation and creativity.   The main character is a young girl named Hatless who lives in the City of Hats. Here, all of the people are born with hats that cover their heads and faces. The world inside of their hats is dark, silent, and odorless.   Hatless feels trapped underneath her own hat. She wants to take off her hat, but she is afraid, until she realizes that whatever frightening things exist in the world around her are there whether or not she takes off her hat to see them.   So Hatless removes her hat.    As Hatless takes in the beauty of her surroundings, she cannot help but talk about what she sees, hears, and smells. The other inhabitants of the city ostracize her because she has become different from them. It is not long before they ask her to leave the City of Hats.   Rather than giving up or getting angry, Hatless feels sad for her friends and neighbors who are afraid to experience the world outside of their hats. She comes up with an ingenious solution: if given another chance, she will wear a hat as long it is one she makes herself. The people of the City of Hats agree, so Hatless weaves a hat that covers her head and face but does not prevent her from seeing the outside world. She offers to loan the hat to the other inhabitants of the city. One by one, they try it on and are enchanted by the beautiful world around them. Since then, no child has been born wearing a hat. The people celebrate by tossing their old hats in the air.   By bravely embracing these values, Hatless improves her own life and the lives of her fellow citizens.     Buti’s language is eloquent and clear. She strikes a skilled narrative balance between revealing Hatless’s inner thoughts and letting the story unfold through her interactions with other characters. Careful descriptions are accompanied by beautiful illustrations that reward multiple readings of the book.

      • Trusted Partner
        January 2013

        The Madmen of Bethlehem

        by Osama Alaysa

        Adopting the story-within-a-story structure of Arabian Nights, author Osama Alaysa weaves together a collection of stories portraying centuries of oppression endured by the Palestinian people.   This remarkable novel eloquently brings together fictional characters alongside real-life historical figures in a complex portrayal of Bethlehem and the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in the West Bank. The common thread connecting each tale is madness, in all its manifestations.   Psychological madness, in the sense of clinical mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, finds expression alongside acts of social and political madness. Together, these accounts of individuals and communities provide a gateway into the histories of the city of Bethlehem and Palestine. They paint a picture of the centuries of political oppression that the Palestinian people have endured, from the days of the Ottoman Empire to the years following the Oslo Accords, and all the way to 2012 (when the novel was written).   The novel is divided into three sections, each containing multiple narratives. The first section, “The Book of a Genesis,” describes the physical spaces and origins of Bethlehem and Dheisheh Refugee Camp. These stories span the 19th and 20th centuries, transitioning smoothly from one tale to another to offer an intricate interpretation of the identity of these places.   The second section, “The Book of the People Without a Book”, follows parallel narratives of the lives of the patients in a psychiatric hospital in Bethlehem, the mad men and women roaming the streets of the city, and those imprisoned by the Israeli authorities. All suffer abuse, but they also reaffirm their humanity through the relationships, romantic and otherwise, that they form.   The third and final section, “An Ephemeral Book,” follows individuals—Palestinian and non-Palestinian—who are afflicted by madness following the Oslo Accords in 1993. These stories give voice to the perspectives of the long-marginalized Palestinian population, narrating the loss of land and the accompanying loss of sanity in the decades of despair and violence that followed the Nakba, the 1948 eviction of some 700,000 Palestinians from their homes.   The novel’s mad characters—politicians, presidents, doctors, intellectuals, ordinary people and, yes, Dheisheh and Bethlehem themselves—burst out of their narrative threads, flowing from one story into the next. Alaysa’s crisp, lucid prose and deft storytelling chart a clear path through the chaos with dark humor and wit. The result is an important contribution to fiction on the Palestinian crisis that approaches the Palestinians, madness, and Palestinian spaces with compassion and depth.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA
        January 2011

        The Boy Who Saw the Color of Air

        by Abdo Wazen

        In his first YA novel, cultural journalist and author Abdo Wazen writes about a blind teenager in Lebanon who finds strength and friendship among an unlikely group.   Growing up in a small Lebanese village, Bassim’s blindness limits his engagement with the materials taught in his schools. Despite his family’s love and support, his opportunities seem limited.   So at thirteen years old, Bassim leaves his village to join the Institute for the Blind in a Beirut suburb. There, he comes alive. He learns Braille and discovers talents he didn’t know he had. Bassim is empowered by his newfound abilities to read and write.   Thanks to his newly developed self-confidence, Bassim decides to take a risk and submit a short story to a competition sponsored by the Ministry of Education. After winning the competition, he is hired to work at the Institute for the Blind.   At the Institute, Bassim, a Sunni Muslim, forms a strong friendship with George, a Christian. Cooperation and collective support are central to the success of each student at the Institute, a principle that overcomes religious differences. In the book, the Institute comes to symbolize the positive changes that tolerance can bring to the country and society at large.   The Boy Who Saw the Color of Air is also a book about Lebanon and its treatment of people with disabilities. It offers insight into the vital role of strong family support in individual success, the internal functioning of institutions like the Institute, as well as the unique religious and cultural environment of Beirut.   Wazen’s lucid language and the linear structure he employs result in a coherent and easy-to-read narrative. The Boy Who Saw the Color of Air is an important contribution to a literature in which people with disabilities are underrepresented. In addition to offering a story of empowerment and friendship, this book also aims to educate readers about people with disabilities and shed light on the indispensable roles played by institutions like the Institute.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        The Dinoraf

        by Hessa Al Muhairi

        An egg has hatched, and what comes out of it? A chicken? No. A turtle? No. It’s a dinosaur. But where is his family?  The little dinosaur searches the animal kingdom for someone who looks like him and settles on the giraffe. In this picture book by educator and author Hessa Al Muhairi, with illustrations by Sura Ghazwan, a dinosaur sets out in search of animals like him. He finds plenty of animals, but none that look the same...until he meets the giraffe. This story explores identity and belonging and teaches children about accepting differences in carefully crafted language.

      • Trusted Partner
        Picture books

        The Lilac Girl

        by Ibtisam Barakat (author), Sinan Hallak (illustrator)

        Inspired by the life story of Palestinian artist, Tamam Al-Akhal, The Lilac Girl is the sixth book for younger readers by award-winning author, Ibtisam Barakat.   The Lilac Girl is a beautifully illustrated short story relating the departure of Palestinian artist and educator, Tamam Al-Akhal, from her homeland, Jaffa. It portrays Tamam as a young girl who dreams about returning to her home, which she has been away from for 70 years, since the Palestinian exodus. Tamam discovers that she is talented in drawing, so she uses her imagination to draw her house in her mind. She decides one night to visit it, only to find another girl there, who won’t allow her inside and shuts the door in her face. Engulfed in sadness, Tamam sits outside and starts drawing her house on a piece of paper. As she does so, she notices that the colors of her house have escaped and followed her; the girl attempts to return the colors but in vain. Soon the house becomes pale and dull, like the nondescript hues of bare trees in the winter. Upon Tamam’s departure, she leaves the entire place drenched in the color of lilac.   As a children’s story, The Lilac Girl works on multiple levels, educating with its heart-rending narrative but without preaching, accurately expressing the way Palestinians must have felt by not being allowed to return to their homeland. As the story’s central character, Tamam succeeds on certain levels in defeating the occupying forces and intruders through her yearning, which is made manifest through the power of imaginary artistic expression. In her mind she draws and paints a picture of hope, with colors escaping the physical realm of her former family abode, showing that they belong, not to the invaders, but the rightful occupiers of that dwelling. Far from being the only person to have lost their home and endured tremendous suffering, Tamam’s plight is representative of millions of people both then and now, emphasizing the notion that memories of our homeland live with us for eternity, no matter how far we are from them in a physical sense. The yearning to return home never subsides, never lessens with the passing of time but, with artistic expression, it is possible to find freedom and create beauty out of pain.

      • Trusted Partner

        In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat

        by Iman Mersal

        ‘In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat’ is a book that traces the life of an unknown Egyptian writer who died in 1963, four years before the release of her only novel. The book does not follow a traditional style to present the biography of Al-Zayyat, or to restore consideration for a writer who was denied her rights. Mersal refuses to present a single story as if it is the truth and refuses to speak on behalf of the heroine or deal with her as a victim, but rather takes us on a journey to search for the individuality that is often marginalised in Arab societies. The book searches for a young woman whose family burned all her personal documents, including the draft of her second novel, and was completely absent in the collective archives.   The narration derives its uniqueness from its ability to combine different literary genres such as fictional narration, academic research, investigation, readings, interviews, fiction, and fragments of the autobiography of the author of the novel. The book deals with the differences between the individuality of Enayat, who was born into an aristocratic family, graduated from a German school and wrote her narration during the domination of the speeches of the Nasserism period, and that of Mersal, a middle-class woman who formed her consciousness in the 1990s and achieved some of what Enayat dreamed of achieving but remained haunted by her tragedy.   The book deals with important political, social and cultural issues, as we read the history of psychiatry in modern Egypt through the pills that Enayat swallowed to end her life on 3 January 1963, while her divorce summarises the continuing suffering of women with the Personal Status Law. We also see how the disappearance of a small square from her neighbourhood reveals the relationship between modernity and bureaucracy, and how the geography of Cairo changes, obliterated as the result of changes in political regimes. In the library of the German Archaeological Institute, where Enayat worked, we find an unwritten history of World War II and, in her unpublished second novel, we see unknown stories of German scientists fleeing Nazism to Cairo. We also see how Enayat’s neglected tomb reveals the life story of her great-grandfather, Ahmed Rashid Pasha, and the disasters buried in the genealogy tree.

      • Trusted Partner
        Fiction
        2022

        The End of the Desert

        by Said Khatibi

        On a nice fall day of 1988, Zakiya Zaghwani was found lying dead at the edge of the desert, giving way to a quest to discover the circumstances surrounding her death. While looking for whoever was involved in the death of the young singer, nearby residents discover bit by bit their involvement in many things other than the crime itself. ///The story takes place in a town near the desert. And as with Khatibi’s previous novels, this one is also marked by a tight plot, revolving around the murder of a singer who works in a hotel. This sets off a series of complex investigations that defy easy conclusions and invite doubt about the involvement of more than one character. /// Through the narrators of the novel, who also happen to be its protagonists, the author delves into the history of colonialism and the Algerian War of Independence and its successors, describing the circumstances of the story whose events unfold throughout the month. As such, the characters suspected of killing the singer are not only accused of a criminal offense, but are also concerned, as it appears, with the great legacy that the War of Independence left, from different aspects.///The novel looks back at a critical period in the modern history of Algeria that witnessed the largest socio-political crisis following its independence in 1988. While the story avoids the immediate circumstances of the war, it rather invokes the events leading up to it and tracks its impact on the social life, while capturing the daily life of vulnerable and marginalized groups. /// Nonetheless, those residents’ vulnerability does not necessarily mean they are innocent. As it appears, they are all involved in a crime that is laden with symbolism and hints at the status of women in a society shackled by a heavy legacy of a violent, wounded masculinity. This approach to addressing social issues reflects a longing to break loose from the stereotypical discourse that sets heroism in a pre-defined mold and reduces the truth to only one of its dimensions.

      • Trusted Partner
        March 2024

        The Strategy of Rescue

        The past and present of a power-political concept

        by Johannes F. Lehmann

        "Rescue” has two fundamentally different “existential” dimensions. One is aimed at “saving” individual lives that are in danger. Firefighters, for instance, rescue people from fires, while the sea rescue services rescue shipwrecked people from the Mediterranean. The second dimension of “rescue”, on the other hand, concerns systems – think of the bailing out of banks, the euro or the climate disaster – and so points to a larger context that creates the conditions for “life” to even be possible, or at least to be preserved. The complex subject of this stringent essay is just to what extent politics enable or prevent “rescue attempts”, to what extent it understands its actions as “rescue actions”, and how decisively the “narrative”, i.e. the “talk of rescue”, ultimately dominates our entire understanding of politics.

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