Book of the month 2007

26th December 2004, 7:58am. An underwater earthquake and resulting tsunami hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra. This enormous tidal wave took the lives of nearly 230 thousand people from the Bay of Bengal, the Andaman Sea, Southeast Asia, and even East Africa. For many months the devastating effects of the tsunami were shown accross the media, but the long-term damage still needs to be dealt with for a considerable time to come. This tsunami is one of the century's worst disasters.

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At the crack of dawn the writer and his girlfriend observe three Finnish hunters setting out to go bear hunting in a forest in Estonia. The Finns are characterised particularly by their alcoholic breath and their adverse hunting rivalry. The brown bear, Serjosha, is the first to appear in the clearing, followed, after the first shots, by a screeching woman looking for blueberries in the wood, then again the bear: “I did not believe my eyes.

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Claire Beyer’s latest novel Draw is about the life of four people. Two married couples, the younger (Kira and Philip) and the elder (Margarete und Friedrich) have recently become neighbours in Hamburg.
Although the two couples do not know each other very well, Kira and Philp get the key to their summer cottage in the French Pyrenees from their neighbours.

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“All Kinds of Love” is the title of the first volume of stories which the renowned lyricist and novelist Ulla Hahn has published. There are 13 stories, which circle around the title subject: how does love reveal itself in different constellations: as a fervent adulterous adventure, or as well-meant charity (only to be disillusioned at the end). More ...

11 September 2001 marks the catastrophic events in New York, but also a fluke coincidence for the young lawyer Jakob, who bumps into his childhood sweetheart Isabelle at a party in Berlin, when he should have been at a meeting in the Twin Towers. Instead of him his college Robert dies, which is tragic, but another fortunate twist for Jakob, as he is now offered Jakob's job in a renowned London law firm. He marries Isabelle, the attractive graphic artist, and the couple – blessed by material wealth, success and destiny – relocates to a Victorian terraced house in Lady Margaret Road.

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