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Recommendations based on Herr Lehmannby Sven Regener
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
Homo Faber
by Max Frisch
A middle-aged engineer's rational worldview is challenged when he embarks on a journey of self-discovery and falls in love with a young woman.
Walter Faber is an emotionally detached engineer forced by a string of coincidences to embark on a journey through his past. The basis for director Volker Schlšndorff’s movie Voyager . Translated by ... (Barnes & Noble)
Measuring the World
by Daniel Kehlmann
A humorous exploration of the history of science, revealing the dichotomy between objectivity and creativity.
The young Austrian writer Daniel Kehlmann conjures a brilliant and gently comic novel from the lives of two geniuses of the Enlightenment. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, two young Germans ... (Goodreads)
The Reader
by Bernhard Schlink
A man's journey of understanding, uncovering a dark secret from his past.
Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of ... (Goodreads)
Steppenwolf
by Hermann Hesse
The inner struggles of a tortured soul as he searches for redemption.
The book is presented as a manuscript written by its protagonist , a middle-aged man named Harry Haller, who leaves it to a chance acquaintance, the nephew of his landlady. The acquaintance adds a ... (Wikipedia)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
by Patrick Süskind
A murder mystery set in 18th century France, exploring the depths of human obsession.
An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of ... (Goodreads)
Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures
by Walter Moers
Rumo, a Wolperting, embarks on a journey to save his love and discovers a world of magic and danger.
The first book chronicles Rumo's childhood, beginning with his puppyhood raised by Hackonian Dwarves, his capture and lengthy detainment by fearsome Demonocles on a floating island known as Roaming ... (Wikipedia)
Faust, First Part
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A timeless story of a man's struggle between the forces of good and evil.
Goethe’s masterpiece and perhaps the greatest work in German literature, Faust has made the legendary German alchemist one of the central myths of the Western world. Here indeed is a monumental ... (Goodreads)
A Long Way Down
by Nick Hornby
Four strangers, all on the brink of suicide, join forces and venture on an unexpected life-affirming journey.
Disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp, the lonely housewife Maureen (51 years old), the unsuccessful musician JJ and the rude teenager Jess (18 years old) meet at Toppers' House in London on New Year's ... (Wikipedia)
About a Boy
by Nick Hornby
A man reevaluates his life when he meets an awkward 12-year-old boy.
Set in 1993 London, About a Boy features two main protagonists: Will Freeman, a 36-year-old bachelor, and Marcus Brewer, an incongruous schoolboy described as 'introverted' by his suicidal mother, ... (Wikipedia)
The Swarm
by Frank Schätzing
A thrilling tale of a giant creature from the deep wreaking havoc on a world unprepared.
The book follows an ensemble of protagonists who are investigating what at first appear to be freak events related to the world's oceans . The book has several sub-plots and will occasionally follow ... (Wikipedia)
The Sorrows of Young Werther
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A young man's struggle to reconcile his intense emotions with the realities of society.
This is Goethe's first novel, published in 1774. Written in diary form, it tells the tale of an unhappy, passionate young man hopelessly in love with Charlotte, the wife of a friend - a man who he ... (Goodreads)
Beneath the Wheel
by Hermann Hesse
A young man struggles against the oppressive rigidity of a school system.
In Hermann Hesse's Beneath the Wheel or The Prodigy , Hans Giebenrath lives among the dull and respectable townsfolk of a sleepy Black Forest village. When he is discovered to be an exceptionally ... (Goodreads)
The Visit
by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
A wealthy woman makes a fateful decision to exact revenge on the impoverished village that once wronged her.
The story opens with the town of Güllen (a name evoking "liquid manure" in German) preparing for the arrival of famed billionaire Claire Zachanassian, who grew up there. Güllen has fallen on hard ... (Wikipedia)
High Fidelity
by Nick Hornby
A man reflects on his past relationships while trying to understand the nature of love.
Rob Fleming is a 35-year-old man who owns a record shop in London called Championship Vinyl. His lawyer girlfriend, Laura, has just left him and now he's going through a crisis. At his record shop, ... (Wikipedia)
Hunting and Gathering
by Anna Gavalda
A story of four friends who form an unlikely family and learn to take comfort in one another.
Camille is doing her best to disappear. She barely eats, works at night as a cleaner and lives in a tiny attic room. Downstairs in a beautiful, ornate apartment, lives Philibert Marquet de la ... (Goodreads)
The City of Dreaming Books
by Walter Moers
An adventure through a literary world, as a librarian searches for a mysterious book.
Protagonist Optimus Yarnspinner ( Hildegunst von Mythenmetz in the German text) is a Lindworm ( dinosaur ) who inherits his authorial godfather 's possessions, including a perfect story written by an ... (Wikipedia)
Chess Story
by Stefan Zweig
A chess master's attempt to regain his lost skill, and the psychological battle he faces.
The narrator opens the story on a passenger liner traveling from New York to Buenos Aires. Driven to mental anguish as the result of total isolation by the Nazis , Dr B, a securities expert hiding ... (Wikipedia)
Dream Story
by Arthur Schnitzler
A married couple's sexual fantasies lead to a series of events that challenge their relationship and their sense of self.
Dream Story is set in early-20th-century Vienna. The protagonist of the story is Fridolin, a successful 35-year-old doctor who lives with his wife Albertina (also translated as Albertine) and their ... (Wikipedia)
The Physician
by Noah Gordon
An orphan's quest to become a doctor in 11th century Europe.
It is the year 1020. Rob Cole is the eldest of many children. His father is a Joiner in the Guild of Carpenters in London. His mother, Agnes Cole, is his father's wife. Robert has a particular Gift: ... (Wikipedia)
The Trial
by Franz Kafka
A man is arrested and put on trial for a crime that remains unclear throughout the novel.
On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, Josef K., the chief cashier of a bank, is unexpectedly arrested by two unidentified agents from an unspecified agency for an unspecified crime. Josef is not ... (Wikipedia)
The Cider House Rules
by John Irving
A moral journey through the rural landscape of 1940s Maine, exploring issues of responsibility, family, and love.
Homer Wells grows up in an orphanage where he spends his childhood trying to be "of use" as a medical assistant to the director, Dr. Wilbur Larch, whose history is told in flashbacks : After a ... (Wikipedia)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
by Jonathan Safran Foer
A young boy's quest to find the lock that matches a mysterious key his father left behind.
Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and ... (Goodreads)
Whatever
by Michel Houellebecq
A man's search for purpose in a world of nihilism and alienation.
"Houellebecq captures precisely the cynical disillusionment of disaffected youth."— Booklist "This boy needs serious therapy. He may be beyond help."—,The Washington Post, Just thirty, with a ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Hotel New Hampshire
by John Irving
A family's uproarious journey of growth and transformation, set in a series of hotels.
This novel is the story of the Berrys, a quirky New Hampshire family composed of a married couple, Win and Mary, and their five children, Frank, Franny, John, Lilly, and Egg. The parents, both from ... (Wikipedia)
The Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen
A family drama exploring the complexities of relationships, aging and life’s choices.
The novel shifts back and forth through the late 20th century, intermittently following spouses Alfred and Enid Lambert as they raise their children Gary, Chip, and Denise in the traditional ... (Wikipedia)
The Virgin Suicides
by Jeffrey Eugenides
A dark and mysterious tale about the mysterious suicides of five teenage sisters in a suburban town.
As an ambulance arrives for the body of Cecilia Lisbon, a group of anonymous adolescent neighborhood boys recalls the events leading up to her death. The Lisbons are a Catholic family living in the ... (Wikipedia)
Against Nature
by Joris-Karl Huysmans
A decadent exploration of art and beauty, challenging the conventions of society.
The epigraph is a quotation from Jan van Ruysbroeck ('Ruysbroeck the Admirable'), the fourteenth-century Flemish mystic: Jean des Esseintes is the last member of a powerful and once proud noble ... (Wikipedia)
A Hat Full of Sky
by Terry Pratchett
A young witch must use her newfound magical powers to survive the trials of her witch apprenticeship.
A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett is a fantasy novel about a girl who is learning her place as a witch. Early in the novel, Tiffany Aching leaves her home in the chalk country (based on England's ... (Wikipedia)
Wintersmith
by Terry Pratchett
A young witch discovers the power of nature as she navigates a mysterious winter world.
Tiffany Aching, now 13 years old, is training with the witch Miss Treason. But when she takes Tiffany to witness the secret "dark morris", the morris dance (performed wearing black clothes and ... (Wikipedia)
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
by Jonas Jonasson
An adventurous old man escapes a nursing home for an unexpected journey of self-discovery.
Allan Karlsson is about to celebrate his hundredth birthday, and his retirement home in Malmköping is planning to throw a party. Allan is not interested. Instead, he climbs out the window and ... (Wikipedia)
