Konrad Lang, a man in his 60s, is haunted by the images of his early childhood, while he forgets his immediate past. Simone, the newcomer to the family, takes pity on Konrad and threatens to uncover secrets the family would like to be forever hidden.
The international bestseller about friendship, second chances, and a tiny glow-in-the-dark pink elephant
A refined page-turner about the international art market that probes the darker recesses of the heart.
"At first, they put Konrad's absentmindedness down to an immoderate fondness for alcohol. For years he had been a benign parasite on the Koch family, first as the childhood playmate of Thomas, heir to the Koch family fortune, later as caretaker of the Koch family holiday villa on Cofu. And they, in their turn, had used him as the mood took them. But when the villa burns down because of Konrad's forgetfulness, Elvira Senn, the matriarch of the Koch family, puts him on a strict regime. No longer allowed his daily tipple, Konrad recovers and even falls in love again. But then his condition deteriorates. He can't find his way out of the supermarket, let alone his way home. Soon Konrad doesn't even recognize his new lover. Alzheimer's, the disease that turns the people closest to the sufferer into total strangers, has taken hold. As he loses his present he regains his far past, and this is what Elvira Senn fears the most. As they watch and wait for him to rewind to the crucial moment, his life is in danger from more than the debilitating disease..."--Publisher's description
A thrilling--and quite funny--art heist escapade that evokes a world of European high culture and luxury, while providing a glimpse of some of the shadowy characters who people the dark underbelly of the art and antique markets.
"Delightfully quirky and original, it feels like a Golden Age detective novel transposed, wonderfully, into the 21st century." --Peter James, author of Dead Simple and Dead Man's Time An unimaginably valuable pink diamond has gone missing and a mysterious Russian residing in Switzerland is suspected of having made off with the treasured jewel. But the investigative duo of Johann Friedrich von Allmen and his Guatemalan butler Carlos are on the case. Their search leads from London to Zurich to a grand hotel on the Baltic coast. Amorous adventures and diverting mishaps litter the path through a world of European high culture and luxury, with hard-knuckle forays into global financial markets and high tech moves to manipulate them. This is the second in a series of fast-paced detective novels devoted to a memorable gentleman thief who, with his trusted sidekick, runs an international detective agency to recover stolen precious objects. Don't miss the first in the series, Allmen and the Dragonflies, also published by New Vessel Press.
As the financial crisis tightens its grip on Europe, the gilded world of Zurich's leading restaurant, Chez Huwyler, seems immune to plunging stock markets and collapsing banks. But behind the scenes, even the rarefied world of haute cuisine is feeling the bite and so Maravan - a Tamil dishwasher and undiscovered culinary genius - and Andrea - a stunningly beautiful waitress - find themselves out of a job and needing to find another way to survive. After Maravan seduces Andrea by cooking her a dinner that fuses the aphrodisiac recipes of his ancestors with the necromancy of molecular gastronomy, Andrea hits upon a business idea: romantic catering for couples. But even culinary magic can't ward off recession and when their new company begins to struggle, they are forced to enter into a much more unsavoury business, plunging them deep into an underworld where murder and sex feed otherwise unquenchable thirsts...
Video journalist Jonas Brand is on a rail journey from Zurich to Basel when stock trader Paolo Contini appears to throw himself from the train to his death. Brand sets his footage of the aftermath of the incident aside to investigate a strange coincidence: two 100-Swiss franc banknotes bearing the same serial number have come into his possession. Sensing an opportunity to graduate from celebrity journalism to serious investigation, he has banknotes analysed, with bizarrely contradictory and fatal results.
Video journalist Jonas Brand is on a rail journey from Zurich to Basel when stock trader Paolo Contini appears to throw himself from the train to his death. Brand sets his footage of the aftermath of the incident aside to investigate an apparently unconnected coincidence: two 100-Swiss-franc banknotes bearing the same serial number have come into his possession. Sensing an opportunity to graduate from celebrity journalism to serious investigation, he has the banknotes analysed, with bizarrely contradictory - and fatal - results.
This book makes the case for reflective practice in post-compulsory teaching, showing how reflective practice might support teachers, as well as being compulsory.