Robert Löhri was born in 1973 and grew up in Berlin, Bremen and Santa Barbara. He was a journalist until he turned his pen to fiction. He has written a large number of plays for film and television as well as the theatre. He lives in Berlin and in addition to writing is a theatre director, actor and puppeteer. Der Schachautomat is his first novel. Translation rights available from: Piper Verlag GmbH Georgenstr. 4 80799 Munich, Germany Tel: +49 89 30 18 01 26 Email: nicole.leppin@piper.de Contact: Nicole Leppin Rights sold already: UK and USA (Penguin); France (Laffont); Italy (Bompiani/Rizzoli); The Netherlands (Karakter Uitgevers); Sweden (Forum); Norway (Aschehoug); Iceland (Edda) Applications for assistance with translation costs - Germany Piper Verlag was founded in 1904 and is well known for its lists in German and international fiction and non-fiction. Authors published by Piper include Ingeborg Bachmann, Sten Nadolny, Lothar-Günther Buchheim, Karl Jaspers, Jakob Hein, Reinhold Messner, Walter Moers, and Gaby Hauptmann. In 1996 the Piper publishing group acquired the imprint Malik Verlag, followed by Kabel Verlag a year later. Since 2002 Piper’s list has been further enriched by the addition of high quality fantasy literature.