Tanja Dückers born in 1968 in Germany and studied German literature and North American studies. She has received numerous awards and fellowships for her writing This is her fourth novel. Tanja Dückers lives in Berlin. Previous works include: Spielzone (Aufbau, 1999); Café Brazil (Aufbau, 2001); Himmelskörper (Aufbau, 2003). Her work has been translated into Turkish and Czech. Translation rights available from: Aufbau Media GmbH Neue Promenade 6 10178 Berlin, Germany Tel: : +49 30 25 76 23 14 E-mail: lehmkuhl@aufbaumedia.de; lehlbach@aufbaumedia.de Contact: Carolina Lehmkuhl; Dorothee Lehlbach Applications for assistance with translation costs - Germany Aufbau-Verlag was founded in 1945 and became the leading cultural and literary publishing-house in East Germany, publishing authors who had been banned in Nazi Germany such as Heinrich Mann, Arnold Zweig, Anna Seghers and Bertolt Brecht. Leading East German Writers Erwin Strittmatter, Jurek Becker, Christa Wolf, Brigitte Reimann and Christoph Hein were published by Aufbau-Verlag before becoming known in the West. Today, Aufbau-Verlag has a strong list of classical, international and contemporary authors. Recent major successes include the diaries of Victor Klemperer as well as novels by Thomas Lehr, Barbara Frischmuth, Tanja Dückers, DBC Pierre, Hong Ying, Fred Vargas and Polina Daschkowa. Aufbau also publishes high quality picture books for children.