Main description: Left alone for the weekend while her husband and two children are visiting her in-laws, the narrator of KILLING STELLA recounts the addition of her friend's daughter, Stella, into their already tense and tumultuous household. Staring out the window at her garden, she worries about the baby bird in the linden tree, about her husband, Richard, who flits from one adulterous affair to another, about her son's gloomy demeanor and her daughter's obliviousness to everything, and, most of all, she worries about Stella, a confused teenager who has just met a sudden and disastrous end.

A domestic horror story that builds to an apocalyptic ending, KILLING STELLA distills many of the themes of Marlen Haushofer's acclaimed novel THE WALL into a claustrophobic, gothic, shattering novella.

Written when Ingeborg Bachmann was only eighteen, The Honditsch Cross, her second-longest completed work of prose, is a historical novella set during the final days of the Napoleonic occupation of Austria in 1813.

A young theology student, returning from Vienna to his family home in Carinthia, finds the invading troops stationed there, led by a despotic officer, who has been exploiting and terrorizing his family and friends. He is immediately thrown into the center of the conflict, torn between defending his homeland, the pull of physical desire, and the pursuit of his theological studies...

In this gripping work, Bachmann begins to explore themes that will pre-occupy her for the rest of her writing career: complex notions of nationality and patriotism, the roles and rights of women in patriarchal societies, the meaningless destruction of war and its aftermath, and the bitter moments of disillusionment that lead to intellectual maturity

Can Greta Kolbe escape Nazi Vienna and reach America before her past and the Gestapo catch up to her?

Vienna on Fire provides a gripping and historically accurate account of the resilience of the human spirit amid the darkest of times.

-Erin Britton, San Francisco Book Review

In the heart of darkening Europe, amidst the looming war, Vienna on Fire by Don Gabor tells the riveting story of Greta Kolbe, an eighteen-year-old Jewish woman whose life was upended when German troops annexed Austria in 1938.

Her peaceful existence is replaced by a nightmare of terror as she, along with Vienna's Jewish community, faces an ordeal of intimidation. Greta's journey of resilience begins as she flees Nazi Vienna to escape arrest for her resistance activities, embarking on a dangerous trek to Holland, with a spiteful ex-suitor and the Gestapo closely trailing her.

Demonstrating awe-inspiring bravery, Greta smuggles diamonds for the German resistance, eludes Hermann Göring's advances, and survives numerous perils, including a harrowing ambush at the German-Dutch border. Her race against time crescendos to a nail-biting climax on the gangplank of a ship bound for New York City, where she must evade her pursuers one last time.

Authored by Don Gabor, known for How to Start a Conversation and Make Friends, this novel is a poignant tribute to the courage against tyranny, based on his mother's real-life experiences and those who opposed the Third Reich. Vienna on Fire is not merely a narrative but an affirmation of the human spirit, inviting readers to witness Greta's grit, ingenuity, and her relentless pursuit of freedom during Europe's most forbidding time.

Uncover the courage that defies darkness-secure your copy of 'Vienna on Fire' now and be inspired by this remarkable story of persistence and survival.

Libraries and readers seeking exceptional portraits of Jewish survivors in general and strong young women who foster different responses to escape and survival, refusing to become victims, will find Vienna on Fire absolutely captivating. It's powered by strong characters whose perceptions and conflicts are not just realistic, but thoroughly absorbing you are here experiences.

--Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review

Can Greta Kolbe escape Nazi Vienna and reach America before her past and the Gestapo catch up to her?

Vienna on Fire provides a gripping and historically accurate account of the resilience of the human spirit amid the darkest of times.

-Erin Britton, San Francisco Book Review

In the heart of darkening Europe, amidst the looming war, Vienna on Fire by Don Gabor tells the riveting story of Greta Kolbe, an eighteen-year-old Jewish woman whose life was upended when German troops annexed Austria in 1938.

Her peaceful existence is replaced by a nightmare of terror as she, along with Vienna's Jewish community, faces an ordeal of intimidation. Greta's journey of resilience begins as she flees Nazi Vienna to escape arrest for her resistance activities, embarking on a dangerous trek to Holland, with a spiteful ex-suitor and the Gestapo closely trailing her.

Demonstrating awe-inspiring bravery, Greta smuggles diamonds for the German resistance, eludes Hermann Göring's advances, and survives numerous perils, including a harrowing ambush at the German-Dutch border. Her race against time crescendos to a nail-biting climax on the gangplank of a ship bound for New York City, where she must evade her pursuers one last time.

Authored by Don Gabor, known for How to Start a Conversation and Make Friends, this novel is a poignant tribute to the courage against tyranny, based on his mother's real-life experiences and those who opposed the Third Reich. Vienna on Fire is not merely a narrative but an affirmation of the human spirit, inviting readers to witness Greta's grit, ingenuity, and her relentless pursuit of freedom during Europe's most forbidding time.

Uncover the courage that defies darkness-secure your copy of 'Vienna on Fire' now and be inspired by this remarkable story of persistence and survival.

Libraries and readers seeking exceptional portraits of Jewish survivors in general and strong young women who foster different responses to escape and survival, refusing to become victims, will find Vienna on Fire absolutely captivating. It's powered by strong characters whose perceptions and conflicts are not just realistic, but thoroughly absorbing you are here experiences.

--Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review

Emil Lanz, an Austrian translator living in Venice, suffers a mid-life crisis and is about to commit suicide when he witnesses a murder. Mobsters burn his house and threaten his life, but he fights back and, in turn, kills two of his pursuers. Though he survives, his previous routine is destroyed . . . then rebuilt, thanks to an eccentric billionaire. He frequently questions the evolving situation: Is it a new reality? A consequence of his suicide that has transported him to a new dimension, to an afterlife? Or has he gone mad and is now in an insane asylum?

Author Gerhard Roth was born in Graz in 1942, the son of a medical doctor and a nurse. He originally intended to study medicine, but soon discontinued his studies. For ten years Roth worked as a computer programmer to support his growing family, but since the mid-1970s he has been exclusively a writer. His major works consist of a cycle of seven novels, Die Archive des Schweigens (The Archives of Silence), and another novel cycle, Orkus (Hades). His work has earned extensive critical acclaim over the years, including the Döblin Prize (1983), the Kreisky Prize (2002), and the Grand Austrian State Prize (2016), among many others.

A celebrated comic book author suffers a mysterious death. His widow, Lilli Kuck, spontaneously travels to the site of his accident in Venice and traces entries in her husband's notebook, following his routes and trying to meet with people he encountered during his final days. Her sleuthing uncovers several of her late-husband's secrets, forcing Lilli to question how well she had really known her life's companion. She also witnesses the killing of a policeman and herself becomes a target for murder. In the end, her journey to Venice becomes a journey to herself, confronting the very riddles of life itself.

Author Gerhard Roth was born in Graz in 1942, the son of a medical doctor and a nurse. He originally intended to study medicine, but soon discontinued his studies. For ten years Roth worked as a computer programmer to support his growing family, but since the mid-1970s he has been exclusively a writer. His major works consist of a cycle of seven novels, Die Archive des Schweigens (The Archives of Silence), and another novel cycle, Orkus (Hades). His work has earned extensive critical acclaim over the years, including the Döblin Prize (1983), the Kreisky Prize (2002), and the Grand Austrian State Prize (2016), among many others.

Young Hans arrives with one suitcase in a squalid village on the eastern edge of empire--a surreal postwar Austria. His uncle has died, and according to the tradition required by his people--the Bieresch--Hans must assume his uncle's place for one year. In a series of interactions with the village's tragicomic characters and their contradictory stories and scriptures, the reluctant Hans must face a world both familiar and alien.

Among the Bieresch is Hans's story--one of bizarre customs, tangled relationships, and the struggle between two mystical sects. The novel, translated by Isabel Fargo Cole, is a German cult favorite and a masterwork of culture shock fiction that revels in exploring oppressive cultural baggage and assimilation. Readers will encounter here an amalgam drawing from Kafka, Borges, and Beckett, among others, combining to make Klaus Hoffer's novel a world utterly its own.

One of the few works that will loom from the dust of this century one day.--Urs Widmer