Annett Gröschner was born in Magdeburg in 1964. She is a freelance writer and journalist who has contributed regularly to leading German newspapers and journals and written documentaries for radio. Her published work includes poetry and essays. In writing this novel she has drawn heavily on her family's experience in refrigeration technology and research. Previous books include: Sieben Tränen muss ein Clubfan weinen; 1.FC Magdeburg - Eine Fussballegende, 1999. Translation rights available from Aufbau-Verlag GmbH Büro Berlin Neue Promenade 6 D-10178 Berlin Tel: 0049 30 283940 fax: 0049 30 28394100 e-mail: poppenhusen@aufbau-verlag.de Applications for assistance with translation costs - Germany Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag was founded in 1909 in Weimar, moving a few years later to Potsdam, then to Berlin. In the 1920s the firm published Gide, Shaw, Brecht, Arnold Zweig and Joseph Roth. After periods of closure between 1933 and 1944, it started publishing works of its previous authors in Weimar in 1946. It became part of a consortium of Leipzig publishers in 1977 and was privatised in 1991. In 1994 it joined the Aufbau-Verlag group and now specialises in contemporary fiction by German and foreign authors, cultural history and social psychology.