Johannes Herwig

Half Lion

Halber Löwe
Rough in the Sound of the Street, Full of Heart Underneath

The last year of school begins for Sascha. Hanging out in the condemned house and increasingly dangerous tests of courage with his buddies: Is this what the rest of his life looks like? And then something happens. Something that shatters everything that used to be and calls into question everything that can still be. To duck away any further - impossible.
Rough in the sound of the street, full of heart underneath: in his new novel, Johannes Herwig tells of a friendship that seems to be above everything, and of the difficulty of taking responsibility. For those you care about - and for yourself.

Cornelia Franz

Swing High

Swing High
Swing Dancing on the Volcano

Hamburg, Summer 1939. As the Second World War looms ever closer, Henri and his friends spend a seemingly carefree summer together. They meet at the swimming pool or in the park, and someone always brings a gramophone along - and then things really heat up! Jazz music enchants the "Swingbuddies" with their relaxed "joie de vivre". But this music is a thorn in the Nazis' side.

It's a dangerous dance on a volcano. One evening when Henri and his girlfriend encounter a Gestapo patrol, they find themselves caught up in a matter of life and death . . .

This book, based on true stories of the Hamburg Swing Dance youth from 1939 to 1941, tells the suspenseful story of an uprising in the middle of World War II. The "Swings" were brave, uncompromising and full of life!
Johannes Herwig

Heroes Of The Shard

Scherbenhelden
Leipzig, 1995: The city is in an upheaval. Nino lives alone with his father and has the usual headaches of a fifteen-year-old: stress in school, a first love. One day he and his best friend Max are caught shoplifting, then he’s bailed out by a group of punks that one day will claim him as their own. Then comes more aggravation: conflict with his father, feelings for a girl who carries a dark secret, and daily threats from neo-Nazis that seem to be everywhere. What’s more, Nino is determined to find out why his mother left him and his father behind just before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Johannes Herwig (“Until the Stars Tremble”) has set against the background of German unification this raw and emotional portrait of youth in the grip of change and aimlessness. This is a story of hope.
Johannes Herwig

Until the Stars Tremble

Bis die Sterne zittern
Leipzig, 1936. On the first day of the summer holidays,
16-year-old Harro gets into a fight with members of the
Hitler Youth. He unexpectedly gets help from like-minded
people who, like him, want nothing to do with the Nazi
ideology. In the year that follows, everything changes for
Harro. Conflicts with his parents and trouble at school,
nights at campfires, political action, first love – and above
all, the fear that his wild activities might have dangerous
consequences.
The "Leipzig Meuten", a group of oppositional youth gangs,
inspired Johannes Herwig’s debut. His discussion of growing
up in a dictatorship is powerful, thrilling, and emotional.
The questions he poses are as applicable now as
they were then: should one participate, should one quietly
adjust, or should one resist?
Maja Nielsen

The Tunnelbuilder

Der Tunnelbauer
Berlin 1961: Things couldn't be better for Achim - he has his Abitur in the bag, a place at university is
secure and Chris, the girl he secretly loves, seems to like him too. But everything changes overnight with the building of the Wall, the GDR regime takes a tougher tone. Distrust, persecution and arrests are the order of the day. When one of his friends ends up in prison, Achim makes a difficult decision he must get out of East Berlin and leave everyone he loves behind. Once on the other side, he does everything he can
to help people escape from the GDR. Together with other helpers, he digs tunnels from West to East Berlin in constant fear of being discovered by the Stasi and full of hope that one day he will see Chris again.
A gripping novel about the legendary tunnel escapes from the GDR, based on a true story.
Dirk Reinhardt

Train Kids

Train Kids
The 14-year-old Miguel leaves his village in the Guatemalan mountains to find his mother. Years ago, she left him and his sister Juana to work in the United States. She has stayed in this far-away land for many years, never coming back, although she has been promising to do so again and again. But Miguel doesn’t want to be put off anymore. He needs to find out about his mother’s disappearance. Has she stopped loving him and his sister?
With a heavy heart Miguel leaves his sister behind and starts out on a long northbound journey. At the Mexican border he meets others who have the same destination: mysterious Fernando, little Ángel, smart Jaz and silent Emilio. They decide to take a chance together. All of them are driven by their longing for the people they have lost and by their hope for a better life.
Freight trains are the only way to cross Mexico. And soon Miguel and the others realize that they are part of a much bigger trek rolling northbound. Thousands of people are travelling as blind passengers on the trains, facing many risks. One false step when jumping on the train, one unattended moment on the roof, one careless slumber at night and their lives might be over. Corrupt police men and greedy robber bands are hunting them. They are suffering from thirst and hunger, from the heat in the jungle, the coldness in the mountains and the drought in the desert.

Rights sold to Mexico, Spain (Spanish and Catalan), Japan and Slovenia

Dirk Reinhardt

Over the Mountains and Over the Sea

Über die Berge und über das Meer
Every year in spring, the nomads stop by Soraya's village on their way to their summer home in the Afghan mountains. Accompanying them is Tarek, who knows sheep better than anyone else and is a wonderful storyteller. But this year Soraya waits for him in vain. According to an old tradition, as the seventh daughter in her family, she was raised as a boy and was able to move freely and attend school. But as a 14-year-old, she has reached the age where she should be living as a girl again in the quiet of her home. In fact the Taliban has, in no uncertain terms, mandated that she do so. They have also threatened Tarek and expect him to put his excellent animal tracking abilities to work for them. The nomads' plight worsens dramatically. Tarek and Soraya can see no other way and each journey out into the world, without knowing where the other is or what they're doing. Unexpectedly, they cross paths in the mountains.
Maja Nielsen

A Crime in Eden 1919

Tatort Eden 1919
From Breckerfeld to Berlin! The 17-year-old Biko can hardly believe his luck. He actually got into the famous Artistenschule, a training academy for circus performers in Berlin! An old suitcase in the lost and found at the Artistenschule sends him 100 years back in time to a tumultuous time in Berlin – the era of the First World War, the November Revolution, and the murder of Rosa Luxemburg.
A Crime in Eden in 1919 – a genuine political crime story begins. But modern-day Berlin is also very exciting: As the son of an African, Biko is presumed to be one of the many refugees who've arrived in the city. And all of a sudden, he finds that there is much more at stake than his dream of being a performer ...
Stepha Quitterer

A Beginner's Guide to Improving the World

Weltverbessern für Anfänger
Mina’s school announces an essay competition: A Beginner’s Guide to Improving the World. Really!?
First prize – a trip to Tallinn, Estonia
– goes to the class with the most enthusiasm for the subject. That leaves Mina cold at first. But then her grandma goes into a nursing home and all of a sudden it’s clear where a person could have a clear impact on someone’s
daily life.

So Mina organizes a nursing home visiting service – not an easy assignment for a class that even the school psychologist avoids.
What’s more, she has to deal with toxic classmates, a failed romance, boring teachers and her parents’ split-up.
After a rough start, what follows is a total surprise, not just for Mina . . . !
This bold and pitch-perfect debut novel by Stephanie Quitterer sets off ideas like fireworks.
Volker Mehnert, Tim Köhler

Magellan - Or Great Moments in Ocean Exploration

Magellan
In 1519 a fleet of five ships with 265 men aboard sets out from Spain’s Atlantic coast to find a western route to the legendary Spice Islands. Their commander is Portugal’s Magellan, a brilliant seaman and a determined explorer.

On September 6, 1522 a single, worm-eaten ship is the only vessel to return. On board are 18 ragged sailors, more dead than alive. Magellan is not
among them . . .

Three years had consumed the voyage that began as an expedition and became a trip that no human had accomplished before – a circumnavigation of the globe.

This book tells the story of Magellan’s astonishing achievement in a gripping narrative and evocative illustrations