Walter Hellmann Book order (chronological)

Eine Insel, dreieinhalb Kilometer lang und anderthalb breit. Dort lebt Gilles, der frühere Freund Cocteaus, Übersetzer und Herr über 47 Katzen. Er soll Nabokovs Ada übersetzen, ein so schwieriges Unterfangen, daß er die Briefe des Verlegers aus Paris vorsichtshalber ungeöffnet läßt. Als die Situation nach Jahren unhaltbar wird, entschließen sich die Inselbewohner zu einem Akt unerwarteter Solidarität... Voll Witz und intelligenter Einfälle, für alle Inselurlauber und Literaturliebhaber.

In a book written while he was president of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel combines the same powerful eloquence, moral passion, and abiding wisdom that informed his writing as a dissident and playwright, with a candor unprecedented from one with the broad perspective and infinite responsibility of governing a country. Havel, now president of the Czech Republic, addresses the legacy of Communism as the euphoria of the Velvet Revolution gives way to a more problematic reality. Yet even as he grapples with the challenges of political change, he affirms his belief in a politics motivated by moral responsibility; in an economy tempered by compassion; and in the central roles of art and culture in the transformation of society. Summer Meditations is not only a timely and necessary testament of events in Eastern Europe but a profound reflection upon the nature and practice of politics and a stirring call for morality, civility, and openness in public life throughout the world.