Dusseldorf A new year also means: time for new books. The publishers’ spring programs are up. What are the big new releases, what trends are emerging? The Handelsblatt presents the most exciting titles.
2021 was shaped by two big topics: the pandemic and climate change. This was also reflected in many non-fiction books. So far, there is no such clear picture for 2022. Pandemic and climate change will be big topics again this year, but not to the same extent. In the new year, the focus is strongly on the future.
There are some titles that are already clear to set new impulses for each individual, but also for society. That they help to understand connections, to penetrate into matters, to focus on new things.
Who could do that better than a futurologist? Amy Webb is one of the most renowned in the field. The futurist founded the Future Today Institute in New York and has been developing scenarios for the most important technological trends for many years. “Forbes” recently named her one of the 50 women who are really changing the world. Her book “The Big Nine” about the tech giants and artificial intelligence that benefits everyone became a bestseller.
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Her new book, “The Genesis Machine”, will be published in February. In it, Webb addresses the question of what goal the merging of biology and computers might have. From your point of view, there is only one thing, but it is very crucial: to gain access to cells in order to write new – and possibly better – biological code. The “miracle of mRNA vaccines” could be continued.
According to her thesis, synthetic biology could help to cure diseases without taking medication, to breed meat without killing animals, and to cope with the climate catastrophe without restricting the economy of the states. It does not ignore risks and moral dilemmas, but warns to regulate them at an early stage.
2. Kai-Fu Lee / Qiufan Chen: KI 2041 Ten visions of the future
Kai-Fu Lee, Qiufan Chen: KI 2041.
Campus publishing house
Frankfurt 2022
534 pages
26 euros
Released February 9th.
Kai-Fu Lee’s eyes are always directed towards the future. He is one of the most renowned AI experts in China, was founding director of Microsoft Research Asia and later a few years CEO of Google China. His community is huge – more than 50 million people follow him on the Sina Weibo social media platform. His last book, “AI Superpowers” was a bestseller.
For his latest project, he has teamed up with Qiufan Chen, a Chinese science fiction writer. In “KI 2041 – Ten Visions of the Future” (translation: Thorsten Schmidt) ten fictional stories from Chens take readers around the world – into an AI-influenced everyday life. This is followed by a reality check by Lee. That promises an unusual view of the world of the day after tomorrow.
3. Maja Göpel: We can do it differently
Maja Göpel: We can do it differently.
Ullstein hardcover
Berlin 2022
208 pages
19.99 euros
Released March 10th.
Maja Göpel takes a look at the future from a German perspective in her new book. In recent years, the political economist has become one of the most important German voices in terms of sustainability and transformation. Her first, very successful book was an invitation: “Rethinking our world”.
Now follows in March with “We can do it differently. Departure into the world of tomorrow “an invitation to urgently accept this invitation. Humanity is in a tremendous process of transformation. The way we live will have to change fundamentally. Previously taken for granted in the environment, economy, politics, society and technology are crumbling.
Göpel is encouraging: on the basis of scientific findings, it shows how we understand such complex developments and how we can use this knowledge for a better world. Structural change is not an imposition, but an opportunity. Also a chance for everyone to ask themselves: Who do I actually want to be?
4. Richard David Precht: Freedom for All
Richard David Precht: Freedom for All.
Goldmann Publishing House
Munich 2022
388 pages
24 euros
Released March 14th.
This is where Germany’s most popular philosopher, Richard David Precht, ties in with the search for meaning. In “Freedom for All”, which will appear in March, he asks the question about the future of work: Will one of the consequences of AI be that all of our labor will at some point no longer be needed? What if machines generate more than enough that human work performance is no longer economically important?
The second machine age of self-learning computers and robots is not only revolutionizing our job market, it is also redefining what work is – and what we actually still work for, writes Precht.
As a result, it will no longer be decisive that people have work at all, but what qualities this work has, what meaning it gives people, what added value with regard to their self-realization.
Precht shows how the changes in the world of work are changing our lives, our culture, our conception of education and ultimately our entire society – and what enormous organizational tasks will be faced by politics.
5. Mark Schieritz: Olaf Scholz – Who is our Chancellor
Mark Schieritz: Olaf Scholz.
S. Fischer Verlag
Frankfurt 2022
160 pages
20 Euros
Released February 16.
These are all questions of the future to which our new government must find answers. Books by or about politicians are an integral part of the publisher’s programs. Especially, before or after elections. There will be a whole series of books on politics in 2022.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach will publish a warning “Before it’s too late”, Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir countered later in the year with “Don’t exaggerate!”, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will publish 36 perspectives “On the future of democracy”.
A biography of a politician will certainly attract particular attention: the new Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Zeit journalist Mark Schieritz asks in his book: “Who is our Chancellor”? He has shaped German politics for more than 20 years – and yet for many he is the great stranger. Schieritz tries to solve this mystery.
6. Oded Galor: The Journey of Humanity
Oded Galor: The Journey of Humanity.
dtv publishing company
Munich 2022
432 pages
26 euros
Released April 13th.
The works of economists have received just as much attention as politicians’ books. Here, too, the publishers are announcing interesting new releases. For example “Money or Life” by DIW boss Marcel Fratzscher or “What future does the social market economy have?” By IW boss Michael Hüther.
The new book by the Israeli economist Oded Galor appears extraordinary. The creator of the unified growth theory dares in “The Journey of Humanity – The journey of humanity through the millennia”, which appears in April in the translation by Bernhard Jendricke and Thomas Wollermann, to the very big theory and tries to discover the secret of prosperity and Reveal inequality by retelling the story of humanity from the beginning to the present day.
Why are we humans the only species that has escaped subsistence? How did the transition from stagnation to growth succeed? And: Why have we made so uneven progress that the prosperity of the nations is so different? Galor merges ideas from economics with findings from anthropology, history and the natural sciences and for the first time delivers an all-encompassing, evidence-based theory.
7. Abdulrazak Gurnah: Distant shores
Abdulrazak Gurnah: Distant Shores.
Penguin Publishing House
Munich 2022
408 pages
26 euros
Released March 14th.
In fiction, readers can look forward to new material from several Nobel Prize winners. Above all the current award winner Abdulrazak Gurnah. The Tanzanian writer, who lives in Great Britain, was almost unknown in Germany until he was honored.
Now Penguin Randomhouse is bringing its books into German. After “Das verlorene Paradies”, which appeared in December, “Ferne Gestade”, translated by Thomas Brückner, will follow in March. A poignant story of the life and escape of two people from Zanzibar.
8. Orhan Pamuk: The Nights of the Plague
Orhan Pamuk: The Nights of the Plague.
Carl Hanser Publishing House
Munich 2022
696 pages
30 euro
Released February 14th.
And then there it is, the treatise on the pandemic – at least indirectly. Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature, asks in “The Nights of the Plague”, translated by Gerhard Meier, the big question of whether an all-shattering catastrophe can make people one?
Based on the situation on Minger in 1901, the great Turkish writer creates a swan song for the Ottoman Empire, which is endangered by nationalism and superstition – and a historical novel in which fantasy and reality, past and present, East and West are combined.
9. Gary Shteyngart: Country Tour
Gary Shteyngart: Country Tour.
Penguin Publishing House
Munich 2022
525 pages
24 euros
Released May 23rd.
Readers have to wait until May for Gary Shteyngart’s new book. But if you believe the US critics: it’s worth it. The celebrated Shteyngart is back with his next great American novel: “Landpartie”, translated by Nikolaus Stingl. The American with a Russian migration background knows how to empathize with developments in such a way that his novels fit exactly into the times.
This time: a house in the country, eight friends, four romances – and six months in isolation. In March 2020, the writer Sasha Senderovsky gathered an illustrious group of old friends and casual acquaintances in an idyllic country house outside of New York to sit out the pandemic with good food and stimulating conversation. And that for half a year. Shteyngart has a good 500 pages.
10. Khaled Khalifa: No one prayed at their graves
Khaled Khalifa: Nobody prayed at their graves.
Rowohlt Publishing House
Hamburg 2022
368 pages
24 euros
Released April 12th.
Khaled Khalifa is an insider tip in Germany. Yet. Rowohlt-Verlag announces a novel of the century by Syria’s most important contemporary author, a story of love and violence. “Nobody prayed at their graves”, translated by Larissa Bender, tells of a time when Muslims, Christians and Jews lived with one another in Syrian cities without hatred and shows the readers the cultural past of Syria.
More: 14 books at the end of the year: these are your favorites