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      • Trusted Partner
        Fiction

        WHEN LIFE WAS GOOD AGAIN

        by Kerstin Sgonina

        Hamburg, 1954: Greta Bergström has spent almost her entire life with her grandmother in Stockholm. Now she stands in front of a run-down house in St. Pauli, where her father lives with his new family. He greets his daughter icily, and in buttoned-up Hamburg Greta searches in vain for a job as a beautician. Until she meets Marieke, who does her neighbours' hair in the prefab barracks on the outskirts of the city. Together they decide to tour the city in a mobile beauty shop – with great success.  After the dark years of the war, women want to look pretty again. Marieke does hair, Greta cosmetics, and Trixie, the third in the group, gives fashion advice. Suddenly Greta's life is so brightly eventful, she almost forgets the reason for her return to Hamburg: to find out what had happened to her mother, who had disappeared without a trace during the war.

      • Trusted Partner
        Fiction

        HANSEATIC RADIANCE - A FAMILY SAGA SET IN HAMBURG

        by Miriam Georg

        A turbulent era. An impossible love affair. A moving saga. Hamburg 1886. Lily, whose father is a ship owner, dreams of becoming a writer. During a ship-naming ceremony, Lily gives a short speech during which her hat is blown off her head. One of the workers tries to get it back for her and is badly injured. Lily is shocked that no one sympathises with the young man’s fate. Then Johannes Bolten comes to the ship owner’s villa to demand compensation for his injured friend. Lily wants to help and allows herself to be drawn into a dangerous game of hide-and-seek. She begins a passionate affair with him. But Jo, who comes from the notorious gangland area, has a secret that Lily must never discover…

      • Trusted Partner
        Historical fiction

        MADAME CLICQUOT AND THE HAPPINESS OF CHAMPAGNE

        by Susanne Popp

        Between self-realisation and love: the story of the woman behind the famous champagne brand Veuve Clicquot.   The French champagne city Reims in 1805: despite resistance from her family, young widow Barbe-Nicole Clicquot takes over the champagne and wine production from her late husband - and turns out to be a talented winemaker. But it is the time of the Napoleonic Wars and business is not going well. Supported by her employee Louis Bohne and the German accountant Christian Kessler, Barbe-Nicole nevertheless manages to get her company started, develops a new production process and thus gives champagne its seductive tingle. Enchanted by her esprit, both men develop feelings for her - but it is only as a widow that Barbe-Nicole can run the company under her name ...

      • Fiction

        All That We Don´t Know

        by María de Alva

        Four children have to deal with the killing of their father in violent, 1970's Northern Mexico. Grief does not stop because nobody in the family wants to talk about the murder for fear of disrupting family unity. The story is written from the perspective of four narrators. The first is a woman who tries to find the truth using her own recollection, photographs and a USB. A second narrator is a police detective who was the lead investigator of the killing and keeps a detailed file and realizes something doesn´t quite add up. A third narrator is a middle-aged woman, facing a cancer diagnosis and who, in the middle of treatment, starts remembering things about her father. The novel takes us deep into the dark wolrd of the 23 September Communist guerrilla in Mexico, weaving elements of historical fact and fiction, and trying desperately to answer questions about the need to for the truth.

      • Fiction

        The Roots of All Evil

        by Paola G. Gasca

        A black and white photograph; a little girl; a small town. Dolores and Jacinta are sisters-in-law who cope with parallel grief. Dolores cannot seem to find a place inside her husband’s heart, not a simple life as she is surrounded by children. Jacinta carries the burden and sadness of being unable to get pregnant. It will be Inés, one of Dolores’ daughters, who strikes the balance and determines the destiny, love, and loss path not only of those women, but of the entire town. The Roots of All Evil happens in a town where hate is so deeply grounded, and where stories get tangled up with superstition, and where the roots of both touch each other, to the point where reality is suspended between veils of evil and sheer coincidence.

      • Fiction

        Casta Diva

        by Alejandra Ángeles

        Alejandra Ángeles' first novel, "Casta Diva," also published by Fondo Blanco in 2023, is set in Mexico City and tells the story of two young women, Ágata and Catalina, who share the same dream: to become opera singers. This raises the question: what does it take to be an opera Diva? Ágata doesn't quite know, but she yearns to find out. Her questioning also touches Catalina, who senses the answer and plans the journey. Ágata has the voice, but not the character. Catalina, on the other hand, has the voice, the character, and the cunning to navigate the challenging operatic environment. Ágata comes from a small family background, while Catalina... Catalina brings the music, which will become an accomplice and intertwine their lives. Choruses, cantatas, zarzuelas, and operas will stage the situations they must face behind the scenes to secure a place at the Opera of Bellas Artes, and with it, the opportunity for something much greater.

      • Fiction

        Always a Banishment

        by Gabriela Couturier

        Against the backdrop of recent large migrations to Europe, Always A Banishment is the real story of a little migration that originates in late nineteenth-century France. Forced by poverty, driven by hope, three peasants from the Upper Savoy see in the Veracruz coasts of Mexico the possible answer to their desperate situation.  Betrayals, far distances, luck and nature play, then more than ever, a decisive role in the fortunes of migrants, who see their homeland, their people and their customs fade away before they can carve a place for themselves in Mexican lands.  Based on the actual letters sent by migrants, this novel remembers a reality that shows that every migration story, regardless of its outcome, is Always A Banishment.

      • Fiction

        That Other Orphanhood

        by Gabriela Couturier

        That Other Orphanhood speaks to that deeply dissatisfied inner self who feels trapped in a life that is very different from the one we intended to live.  It is, also, a novel about a coming of age of sorts: the main character stands at the threshold of mid-life, and while she is a successful career woman with a good marriage and a seemingly enviable life, she knows the decisions she makes from now on will have ever more permanent consequences. Changing course to pursue a long-coveted dream might endanger not only everything else she has achieved but the very foundations of her life. And the insistent beckoning of maternity feels more like a question than an answer in her orderly world.  With her struggle against the increasingly common nightmare of infertility as a leitmotiv, That Other Orphanhood reflects on the contradictions that threaten the harmony between our ambitions, the expectations of society and our very essence.

      • Women's Fiction

        The Garden by the Sea

        by Sophie Goldberg

        Bulgaria, 1942. Boris III must hand over 20,000 Jews to the Nazis for extermination, but the king and his people do not intend to yield. Likewise, little Alberto, only six years old, resists when SS officers forcibly take his father away. Now he is the man of the family, and he must take care of his younger brother and his mother, who seeks to keep her children safe from the horrors of the war and not lose hope of being with her beloved husband once more. Based on real events, The Garden by the Sea tells, through the eyes of a child, the previously untold story of the unique fate of Bulgarian Jews during World War II

      • Teaching, Language & Reference
        January 2009

        Sorbonne Confidential

        by Laurel Zuckerman

        After losing her high tech job in Paris, Alice Wunderland dreams of a new, unemployment-proof career as English teacher and decides to dedicate a year to training for France's prestigious competitive exam; After all, she reasons, how hard can it be for an educated American to pass a test in English? She enrolls at the Sorbonne, but her Arizona English fails to impress. Even Shakespeare's English falls short. Only one English will do: Sorbonne English! Even while learning this new language, Alice vows to investigate: Why devise an English exam that few native speakers can pass ? Could this explain why French schoolchildren rank last for English skills in Europe? Is it true that Frenchness is a question of formatting? If so, can a foreigner even one with French nationality ever become truly French? As riots break out in France among the children of immigrants, Alice cannot help but wonder: could there be any connection between her bewildering experience and theirs? A hilarious, hair-raising insider's look at the esoteric world of French Education. (Harriet Welty Rochefort --author of French Toast).

      • Fiction
        January 2016

        Bonds of Love and Blood

        by Marylee Macdonald

        Whether far from home or longing to escape, the people in these stories find themselves displaced from their normal routines. They misread the signals and wind up stranded on lonely beaches or seizing the moment before happiness flits away. "MacDonald applies insight, power, and delicacy to create characters between whom the psychic space virtually sizzles." —FOREWORD REVIEWS "engrossing"—MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW "With elegant prose enlivened by shards of mean humor, MacDonald captures how hard it is to love and/or trust abroad or at home."—KIRKUS REVIEWS "Author Marylee MacDonald has done an absolutely masterful job of presenting her readers with short stories so beautifully written that the characters will stay in your mind long after the story, and indeed the book, is done."—READERS’ FAVORITE "In her collection of twelve brilliantly-written short stories, MacDonald explores the pain and beauty of human relationships. MacDonald’s writing is raw and visceral, creating a strong emotional connection between her characters and the reader."—US REVIEW OF BOOKS "Bonds of Love and Blood is brilliantly written and nothing less than emotive."—HOLLYWOOD BOOK REVIEWS "Poignant, honest,and compelling... Highly recommended."—PACIFIC BOOK REVIEW "MacDonald dares to question which is the greater, more unsettling risk: the alluring intimacy of foreign terrains, or the intimate dangers of domesticity?" —Tara Ison, author of Reeling Through Life and Child out of Alcatraz "Her characters remind us of our universal and contradictory longing for solitude and for connection. Savor this book. Enjoy being in the hands of a generous and visionary writer." —Eileen Favorite, author of The Heroines "These elegantly crafted stories brim with emotional wisdom and eloquence. Bearing you around the world, they will imprint themselves, deeply, indelibly, upon your heart." —Melissa Pritchard, author of Palmerino

      • Fiction
        October 2020

        El ojo de la luna

        by Ivan Obolensky, translated by Germán González Correa

        Una fascinante historia de suspenso y misterio que atrapa al lector desde el comienzo, hasta llegar a su sorprendente final. El ojo de la luna es la traducción al español latinoamericano de la premiada novela Eye of the Moon de Ivan Obolensky. A Johnny y Percy, amigos de infancia, se les ocultan los hechos que rodearon la muerte de la tía Alice, sosteniendo en sus manos el “Libro egipcio de los muertos”. Veinte años más tarde los amigos vuelven a encontrase para una celebración en Rhinebeck, la mansión familiar. Durante los cortos días de su estadía, descubrirán el mundo secreto que la rodeaba. Su vida, e incluso su muerte, están sorprendentemente atadas a ellos, envolviéndolos en una inesperada maraña de misterio, ocultismo, intrigas familiares y magia, elementos que harán que nada parezca lo que es, y que al dejar la propiedad, ninguno de los dos vuelva a ser igual.

      • Fiction

        Feuerblume / Fire Flower

        by Sanna Seven Deers

        The story of a life-changing journey in Western Canada According to everyone around her, Alexandra should be content with her life. She has a good job, a nice group of friends, and understanding parents – what else could one ask for? Still, Alexandra is not happy. She decides to take a break from work and daily life and travels to Western Canada. The close contact with nature, and the mystic and culture of the First Nations people she encounters, finally help Alexandra to find herself. She learns the meaning of life, discovers the beauty of living, falls in love, and ventures a new start eventually...

      • Fiction
        2019

        A Jorney to the Abyss

        by Nikelen Witter

        This is the story of advancing deserts that covered cities. The story of a world on the verge of destruction. It is about the people who inhabited that world, their alienation and the violent war in which they lost themselves. This is the story of a young woman, who healed wounds, and her best friend, who ran a brothel, and how they faced all that was thrown at them. It is also the story of a tiger and a little girl. But, when you get to know all of them, you will have to answer the call to look into the future and plunge into the abyss.

      • Fiction
        2019

        Witch, However

        by Carol Chiovatto

        Ísis Rossetti is a witch. Her job is to monitor crimes involving supernatural activity in the city of São Paulo. And only those crimes. The rules are clear: if there is no magic involved, she is not allowed to intervene. But in the midst of the city’s suffocating chaos , the lives of common people are in constant danger. She can’t just sit there and watch. Everything escalates when, caught between two extraofficial investigations, Ísis receives a mission from a deity. She must then relive personal issues she would much rather leave buried in the past, kept under lock and key by her friends, all while trying to handle the Magistrate and his watchful gaze.

      • Fiction
        August 2020

        Dinosaurios en otros planetas

        Stories

        by Danielle McLaughlin / Ca_teter

        Los relatos que componen este libro poseen esa particular forma de impureza de la que puede surgir la comprensión hacia los otros: ninguno de los personajes maltrechos que habitan estas once historias tiene toda la razón o está totalmente equivocado; ninguna bondad es total aquí, ninguna mezquindad es absoluta. El talento de McLaughlin para hacer surgir los detalles que expresan la ambigua complejidad de la conducta humana convierte estos relatos en poderosas piezas literarias de singular lucidez. «La escritura de McLaughlin es tan atrapante y visual que el lector se mete de lleno en la historia desde el primer párrafo.» Sophie Gorman, Irish Independent «Este libro no es un debut en el sentido usual, es decir, una promesa de grandes cosas por venir. No es necesario preguntar qué hará Danielle McLaughlin luego: ya lo ha hecho. Este libro llegó para quedarse con nosotros por mucho tiempo.» Anne Enright

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