About the book
English title: Man of the Sea. Thomas Mann and the Love of His Life
ISBN: 978-3-462-00231-7
240 pages
Publication date: 07.06.2023

Rights sold to:
Denmark (Turbine)

Content
With lightness and humor, warmth and clarity, Weidermann writes about the Nobel Prize winner. This book is the story of a German century, the biography of a great writer and his family, but above all it is a book about the dark, the threatening, tempting and liberating – about Thomas Mann and the sea.

Throughout Thomas Mann’s life, the sea was a place of yearning and longing for death – a place of liberation from conventions, from the political, literary and erotic constraints of bourgeois life. A place of freedom and of the true self.

Perhaps it all began where his mother experienced happiness as a child: in the Brazilian jungle, in a big, bright house by the sea. Her son Thomas grows up on the Baltic Sea, but heads south as soon as he can, traveling to Italy, to the Mediterranean, falling in love with young men, but following the conventions of the time and marrying Katia.

Years later: the passage to exile. In California, on the Pacific, he becomes another man yet again, fighting against Hitler, for democracy, for freedom, and acquiring American citizenship. After his death, his favorite daughter Elisabeth continues his legacy as a globally celebrated scholar of the seas with her utopian oceanic politics.

About the author
Volker Weidermann, born in 1969, was the host of Germany's most important literary talk show on TV. Since 2021, he has been head of the literature and arts section of DIE ZEIT. He is the author of numerous books, including Ostend. Stefan Zweig, Joseph Roth and the Summer before the Dark and Dreamers. His work has been translated into 17 languages.

For further information please feel free to contact:
Lara Mertens
Rights and Licences
Kiepenheuer & Witsch
[email protected]

About the book
English title: The Chinese Phantom. The World's Most Dangerous Arms Dealer or: The Powerlessness of the West
ISBN: 978-3-462-00139-6
272 pages
Publication date: 04.05.2023

Rights sold to:
Netherlands (Alfabet)

Content
Have you ever heard of Karl Lee alias Li Fangwei? No? Then you’re not alone. He’s a phantom – and considered by many to be the most dangerous man in the world.

Karl Lee plays a key role in the secret struggle between the world powers. He gives unscrupulous dictators what they need to wipe out their neighboring countries, or even to trigger a third world war. For almost two decades, intelligence agencies have been hunting for Karl Lee. The FBI has put a five-million-dollar bounty on his head. But still nobody has been able to catch him.

Now four award-winning investigative journalists have set out to find him. They follow his trail across four continents. To date, there has only been one blurry photograph of Karl Lee. But, following the routes of his deliveries and his money, the authors manage to track down his companies in China and to uncover his network of shell companies. In the course of their investigation, they get embroiled deeper and deeper in the games of international secret services and realize that Karl Lee is just a pawn in a much bigger game. 

"A thrilling and globe-spanning account of the search for the world's most wanted man. The authors delve into the murky worlds of arms-smuggling, sanctions-busting and espionage. In their hunt for the Chinese phantom, they encounter suspicious police, atomic experts, and former spies, as well as a perplexing wall of silence from the Israeli and US governments. The book delves into international rivalries, and explores a shifting game of realpolitik featuring Beijing and Washington, Tehran and Moscow, London and Munich. Lucid, compelling, and vividly written." - Luke Harding, #1 New York Times bestselling author

About the authors

Christoph Giesen is the China Correspondent of the German magazine Der Spiegel. 

Philipp Grüll is an investigative reporter, weapons expert and editor at Germany’s leading public broadcaster ARD. 

Bastian Obermayer is a Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative reporter. With his colleague Frederik Obermaier he received the ground breaking Panama Papers leak from an anonymous source. He is the recipient of the German Reporter Award and the George Polk Award, among other honors.

Frederik Obermaier is a book-author and Pulitzer-Prize-winning investigative reporter. Together with Bastian Obermayer, he initiated the Panama Papers. He has received numerous honors for his work. In 2016, he was elected Germany's "Journalist of the Year".

For further information please feel free to contact:
Lara Mertens
Rights and Licences
Kiepenheuer & Witsch
[email protected]

About the book
English title: My Journey with Sea Turtles
A marine biologist's fight to protect our oceans
272 pages ▪ 13,6 × 20,5 cm
ISBN 978-3-89029-572-5
Publication: 04/2023
Sold to: Canada/World English (Greystone)

A woman on a mission to save the turtles
Gliding elegantly through the water, sea turtles travel
thousands of kilometres and are able to find their way
back – even years later – to the beach where they were
born. Christine Figgener is a long-term campaigner for
the study and protection of these fascinating, primeval
creatures. In this book, she takes us on a journey
through the life of a sea turtle, and through her own.
She gives a vivid account of nocturnal visits to
Caribbean beaches in search of nesting females and
hair-raising boat rides on the Pacific, describing the
dangers facing both turtles and those who study them.

- Expert knowledge from a dedicated marine biologist
- Christine Figgener was featured as »TIME's Next Generation Leader«
- With illustrations and pictures

About the author
Christine Figgener, born in Germany in 1983, studied Biology and
gained a PhD from Texas A&M University. Since 2007, she has lived in
Costa Rica, researching sea turtles and campaigning for their protection.

For further information please feel free to contact
Elisabeth Wiedemann
E-mail: [email protected]
Sven Diedrich
E-mail: [email protected]
Foreign Rights
Piper Verlag GmbH
Georgenstraße 4
80799 Munich
Phone: +49 (0)89 38 18 01-735

About the book
English title: Xi Jinping
The most powerful man in the world

July 2021
304 pages
EAN 978-3-492-07006-5
Rights sold to: Hungary (Corvina), Poland (Foksal),
Mongolia (Nepko), Finland (Bazar), Denmark
(Gutkind), Sweden (Bazar), World English (Polity),
Italy (Paesi Edizioni), Norway (Bonnier
Norsk), Spain (Esfera de los Libros)

The stranger behind the smile
Avoiding both sycophantic flattery and outright condemnation, this
new biography by Stefan Aust and Adrian Geiges gets inside the
head of one of the world’s most mysterious leaders. Skilfully unravelling
the hidden story of Xi Jinping’s life and career, from his early
childhood to his rise to the pinnacles of the Party and the State,
they flesh out his views and uncover how he became the most powerful
man in the world.
▪ Anyone who wants to understand China needs to know how Xi
Jinping ticks
▪ But who is Xi Jinping and what does he really want? To rejuvenate
China and bring economic prosperity to all its people? To
challenge American supremacy and turn China into the world’s
dominant power?

About the authors

Stefan Aust is the former editor-in-chief of Germany’s leading news magazine Der Spiegel and the author of numerous bestselling books
including The Baader-Meinhof Complex. Today he is the editor of Die Welt. Aust is one of the few journalists worldwide to have interviewed
a Chinese head of state.

Adrian Geiges is the long-standing Beijing correspondent of the weekly news magazine Stern. He studied Chinese, is married to a Chinese,
they raise their daughters bilingually. He is the author of numerous books.

For further information please feel free to contact
Elisabeth Wiedemann
E-mail: [email protected]
Sven Diedrich
E-mail: [email protected]
Foreign Rights
Piper Verlag GmbH
Georgenstraße 4
80799 Munich
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)89 38 18 01-735

About the book 
English title: Rewilding 
Subtitle: The Search for Balance between Humankind and Nature
Non-Fiction. 237 pp.
ISBN: 978-3-351-04183-0
Aufbau. Hardcover
2023, April 

Content: 
Brave the wilderness – for a completely new relationship with nature
Rewilding is the answer to the climate crisis. It means relinquishing control and leaving nature to its own devices. As a result, intact ecosystems are created that not only provide new habitats for animals and plants, but also ensure clean air, clean water and fertile soils. These absorb carbon dioxide and protect against floods and other climate extremes.

Simone Böcker communicates a positive message: not only can species extinction be stopped, it can be reversed! In addition, she shows how we can play our part, be it in our own garden or by creating wildflower meadows in our communities. A book that makes you want to brave the wilderness – and one that encourages a mindful relationship with nature, as cultivated by indigenous cultures.

About the author
Simone Böcker is a journalist and expert on nutrition and nature topics. She is particularly interested in wild herbs, which have taught her respect and gratitude for nature. She lives in Berlin.

About the book
English title: The Crisis of Narration
ISBN: 978-3-7518-0564-3
Pages: 100
Publication year: 2023

Synopsis 
The inflationary use of storytelling masks the narrative crisis of the present. In the midst of noisy storytelling, there is a narrative vacuum that manifests itself as an emptiness of meaning and disorientation.
Narratives in the original sense bring forth the binding, the connecting and the obligatory, thus creating the community as a community of narratives. Narratives eliminate contingency. Just when everything has become so arbitrary and random, that is, in the midst of the contingency storm of the information society, storytelling speaks out loudly. Narratives as narratives are themselves perceived as contingent. Storytelling is spreading in the midst of a great disorientation. It is ultimately narrative in consumer form. Narrative and advertising fall into one. Capitalism appropriates narrative. Storyselling. Storytelling is storyselling. But it cannot transform the information society back into a narrative community. The crisis of narration, however, has a long history. Byung-Chul Han's new essay traces it. In doing so, Han consistently continues his reflections on our information society and now shows that narrative and information are originally opposing forces.

About the author
Byung-Chul Han was born in Seoul, South-Korea. His works are translated in over 30 languages and are bestellers in numerous countries. He lives in Berlin. 

For further information please feel free to contact:
Loan Nguyen
Deputy Managing Director | Head of Rights & Licenses
Matthes & Seitz Berlin
E-mail: [email protected]

About the book
English title: Oysters. A Portrait
Publication year: 2022
ISBN: 978-3-7518-0221-5
Pages: 167

Synopsis 
As soon as the solid muscle of the animal, which is still alive when eaten, is cut, the living mollusk inside is revealed: it has a heart but no brain, but a stomach, intestine and anus. Perhaps this is why the oyster is at the center of erotic fantasies, as the epitome of creatureness. As such, it found its way into painting in the 16th century and was finally popularized in the 19th century: Before the oyster became a delicacy, it was cheap street food, a poor man's food. And long before queer theory sought to liquefy the question of gender, this inconspicuous sea dweller was already a master of gender fluidity: depending on the weather, oysters change their gender several times in their lifetime. Andreas Ammer follows in the footsteps of this fascinating animal to fish markets, harbor restaurants and ships, ultimately always returning to this one moment: the Oyster Conversion Experience, the life-changing encounter with this invisible sea creature, whose taste of ocean he yearns for again and again. And to the question of how to tell a story about an animal that has lived far longer than humans, but hides between two shells for the vast majority of the time.

About the author
Andreas Ammer, born in Munich in 1960, is a television producer, university lecturer and opera director, but above all the author of numerous award-winning radio plays in collaboration with musicians such as FM Einheit, Ulrike Haage, The Notwist, Acid Pauli and Driftmachine.

For further information please feel free to contact:
Loan Nguyen
Deputy Managing Director | Head of Rights & Licenses
Matthes & Seitz Berlin
E-mail: [email protected]

About the book
English title: A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics
ISBN: 978-3-518-58790-4
108 pages
Published: 12.09.2022

Rights sold to:
English world rights (Polity), Spanish world rights (Trotta), Catalan rights (Edicions 62), Chinese simplex rights (CITIC Press), Russia (NLO), Brazilian Portuguese rights (UNESP), France (Gallimard), Italy (Cortina), Netherlands (Boom), Denmark (Samfundslitteratur), Sweden (Daidalos), Norway (Cappelen Damm Akademisk), Korea (Sechang), Japan (Iwanami Shoten), Bulgaria (KX – Critique and Humanism), Croatia (Politička Misao), Turkey (Iletisim), Greece (Crete UP), Albania (Dukagjini)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (John Verlag)

60 years later: The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere revisited

»It is not a political choice of direction but a constitutional imperative to maintain a media structure that enables the inclusive character of the public sphere and a deliberative character of the formation of public opinion and will.«

Order Pour le Mérite for Jürgen Habermas in 2022

The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Jürgen Habermas’ first book, was published in 1962. In it, he profiles a concept of the public sphere from a socio-historical and conceptual-historical perspective that assigns it a place between civil society and the political system. The Structural Transformation soon joined the ranks of the great classics of 20th-century sociology and inspired extensive research in the field of history and the social sciences. In later works, Habermas himself repeatedly addressed the role of the public sphere in ensuring the survival of the democratic polity. In view of a media structure changed by digitalisation and the crisis of democracy, he now returns to the topic once again.

The centrepiece of this book is an essay in which he examines in great detail the new media and their platform character, which are increasingly pushing traditional mass media – significant drivers of the »old« structural transformation – into the background. The vanishing point of his reflections is the assumption that the new forms of communication damage the self-perception of the political public as such. This would mean a new structural change of the public sphere, with serious consequences for the deliberative process of forming opinion and will in a democracy.


About the author
Jürgen Habermas was born in Düsseldorf in 1929. He has taught at the universities of Heidelberg and Frankfurt as well as at the University of California, Berkeley, among others. He is the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates and awards. In 2001 he was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.

For further information please feel free to contact:
Christoph Hassenzahl 
Rights and Licences 
Suhrkamp Verlag AG
Torstraße 44
10119 Berlin
E-mail: [email protected]

About the book
English title: Prometheus’s Remorse
ISBN: 978-3-518-02985-5
80 pages
Published: 13.03.2023

Rights sold to:
English world rights (Semiotexte), Spanish world rights (Siruela), Catalan rights (Arcadia), France (Payot), Italy (Marsilio)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (CC Live)

The stirring speech given by Peter Sloterdijk in Lucerne in October 2022

From time immemorial, man has had to organise his »metabolism with nature«. For Marx, the most important factor in this process was labour. When Prometheus, according to the myth, brought fire to earth, another crucial input was added. Fire has been used to cook food and harden tools for hundreds of thousands of years. In this sense, it can be said that all history implies the history of the uses of fire.

But where trees could only be burnt once, the weights of the factors labour and fire shifted with the discovery of underground deposits of coal and oil. Modern humanity, according to Peter Sloterdijk, can be considered a collective of arsonists who set fires to the underground forests and moors. If Prometheus were to return to Earth today, he might regret his gift; after all, what looms is nothing less than Ekpyrosis, the demise of the world in fire. And only a new, energetic pacifism can prevent this catastrophe.

»Sloterdijk commands an overwhelming knowledge and interweaves this knowledge with his bright judgement, never limited by the status quo.« Daniel Kehlmann, Neue Zürcher Zeitung on Wer noch kein Grau gedacht hat

»Sloterdijk plays with language, taking delight in brilliant expressions. Wherever you open the book, you will find sentences that inspire an embarrassing sense of envy. Sloterdijk’s style is unrivalled.« Michael Maar, Süddeutsche Zeitung on Wer noch kein Grau gedacht hat

About the author
Peter Sloterdijk was born in 1947 and is professor emeritus of Aesthetics and Philosophy at the Institute of Design in Karlsruhe. The unmistakable characteristic of Peter Sloterdijk’s thought and writings is the way he embeds current issues in a long history. This way, he succeeds in redefining the current human condition, visualizes it from a hitherto unknown perspective, and finds evidence for unexpected or unsought connections. His book Kritik der zynischen Vernunft is one of the biggest-selling philosophical books of the 20th century.

For further information please feel free to contact:
Christoph Hassenzahl 
Rights and Licences 
Suhrkamp Verlag AG
Torstraße 44
10119 Berlin
E-mail: [email protected]