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Cover image for the book "The Birthday Party" shows a woman with black hair standing with her back to the viewer in a red, floor-length dress

The birthday party

Judith W. Taschler

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A birthday party, an unwanted guest and an inevitable catastrophe
For his 50th birthday, Kim Mey's three children want to surprise their father with a special guest at the family birthday party: without his knowledge, they have invited Tevi Gardiner, the woman with whom Kim fled Cambodia as a child. And whom he hasn't seen for 25 years. But instead of being happy as expected, Kim reacts strangely dismissively. Ines, the mother of the three, also treats Tevi coldly. What Kim and Ines have kept quiet about for decades is now inevitably being heard: the true circumstances surrounding that dramatic escape from Cambodia and the terrible end of a great love. And so a seemingly harmless surprise turns a birthday party into a family drama...


"The Birthday Party", the painfully empathetic family drama by the renowned Spiegel bestseller author and Glauser Prize winner Judith W. Taschler, revolves around family relationships and lies, great love and escape and homecoming. Told in multiple voices and with virtuosity, Innsbruck native Judith W. Taschler creates "characters that get under the reader's skin and stay in the memory for a long time" (Petra) in her unmistakably clear language.


Judith W. Taschler sheds light on the major turning points in life, telling her story in a sophisticated and psychologically dense way, full of compassion for her characters, without ever becoming kitschy.
»I am always happy when a new book by the author is published because I really appreciate her way of writing.« (Christine Westermann, WDR2)

Cover picture for the book "The long way of hope" shows the author Loung Ung sitting in front of a stone wall in a white top with sunglasses in her hair in black and white

The Long Road of Hope

Lounge

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A moving book about a destroyed childhood in a destroyed country.


Cambodia in April 1975. Khmer Rouge soldiers advance into the capital Phnom Penh. The country is sinking into hunger, horror and murder. Loung Ung, a cared-for child, becomes an orphaned refugee who desperately fights for survival in the Cambodian jungle.
Unspeakable suffering befalls her. Loung has to be trained as a child soldier in an orphanage, her brothers and sisters fight desperately for their lives in labor camps. The only consolation Loung Ung has is the hope of seeing her family again at the end of the reign of terror.
"To talk is to put my family in great danger. At the age of five, I begin to understand what it is like to be alone, silent and lonely, with the expectation that anyone could hurt me.

The book was made into a film directed by Angelina Jolie and is available on Netflix.

In the original English the title is " First they killed my father "

Cover image for the book "Wherever you go". It shows a Khmer woman in traditional colorful costume.

Wherever you go: The story of an almost impossible love

Benjamin Prüfer

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Nothing has been the same for three years: During his vacation in Cambodia, 23-year-old Benjamin Prüfer meets a woman who sells her body to make ends meet. They fall in love. When he finds out that she has HIV, he has to decide: for or against a life with Sreykeo. Despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, he finally makes his decision - and marries the love of his life.


The true story of two young people who face the struggle for survival day after day and thereby prove their love is told in a moving, unvarnished and subjective way.

Cover picture for the book "The long way of hope" shows the author Loung Ung sitting in front of a stone wall in a white top with sunglasses in her hair in black and white

The Long Road of Hope

Lounge

This post contains affiliate links, if you make a purchase through these links we may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.

A moving book about a destroyed childhood in a destroyed country.


Cambodia in April 1975. Khmer Rouge soldiers advance into the capital Phnom Penh. The country is sinking into hunger, horror and murder. Loung Ung, a cared-for child, becomes an orphaned refugee who desperately fights for survival in the Cambodian jungle.
Unspeakable suffering befalls her. Loung has to be trained as a child soldier in an orphanage, her brothers and sisters fight desperately for their lives in labor camps. The only consolation Loung Ung has is the hope of seeing her family again at the end of the reign of terror.
"To talk is to put my family in great danger. At the age of five, I begin to understand what it is like to be alone, silent and lonely, with the expectation that anyone could hurt me.

The book was made into a film directed by Angelina Jolie and is available on Netflix.

In the original English the title is " First they killed my father "

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