Antonia Michaelis has lived and taught in India, bringing a unique global perspective to her writing. As the author of several award-winning books, her work is primarily published in her native German. She crafts intricate narratives and deeply developed characters that resonate with readers across diverse backgrounds. Michaelis's distinctive voice and ability to transport readers to different worlds mark her as a significant literary figure.
Twelve-year-old Karl, angry after his friend Achim is adopted, runs away from the orphanage and into an adventure with tiny, seafaring people whose children disappeared while they were visiting a strange, uncharted island
Achim is eleven years old when he moves from the orphanage to the house by the sea. Here everything is strange and new. But one day he discovers an unusual door that leads to a circular room with walls made of rough stone. The light coming through the window is hazy, as if the room is under water. It is a magic room—which he calls “The Adopted Room”—belonging to another world. And on a bed in the room sits a boy who is waiting to take Achim with him into the realm of the powerful Nameless One. Achim learns that the boy, Arnim, is the long-dead son of Achim’s new parents. When he died in a car accident at the age of four, Arnim was supposed to have become a bird and flown free to the land of the dead, which can be seen through the window of The Adopted Room. But the Nameless One has somehow locked Arnim inside, so he cannot leave. Achim, however, finds he can turn into a bird, slip through the window, and fly across the strange land. And thus begins a journey in which Achim must fight the Nameless One and free Arnim so he can finally leave his parents and they can let go of their grief.
Anna and Abel couldn’t be more different. They are both seventeen and in their last year of school, but while Anna lives in a nice old town house and comes from a well-to-do family, Abel, the school drug dealer, lives in a big, prisonlike tower block at the edge of town. Anna is afraid of him until she realizes that he is caring for his six-year-old sister on his own. Fascinated, Anna follows the two and listens as Abel tells little Micha the story of a tiny queen assailed by dark forces. It’s a beautiful fairy tale that Anna comes to see has a basis in reality. Abel is in real danger of losing Micha to their abusive father and to his own inability to make ends meet. Anna gradually falls in love with Abel, but when his “enemies” begin to turn up dead, she fears she has fallen for a murderer. Has she? Award-winning author Antonia Michaelis moves in a bold new direction with her latest novel: a dark, haunting, contemporary story that is part mystery, part romance, and part melodrama.
A tale of the invisible prince Jumar who sets out to free his country, Nepal, from rebels, intertwined with the story of Christopher, a shy boy from Germany who is magically transported there to search for his brother, apparently kidnapped by the same rebels.
Safia tries to escape her fate as the wife of a cruel merchant by telling stories of Farhad the thief, his companion Nitish the white tiger, and their efforts to save a kidnapped princess from becoming the bride of a demon king.