Understanding what's happening in the world: These are the best non-fiction books for the summer holidays

«Palestine 1936» by Oren Kessler

Rico Bandle · Hardly any conflict in the world is reported on as much as the one between Israel and the Palestinians. And yet very few people understand the roots of this eternal dispute. The American historian Oren Kessler, who lives in Tel Aviv, sees the key to understanding it in the Arab revolt of 1936. In order to combat the increasing spread and influence of Jewish immigrants, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem called for a revolt and a general strike. This led to a bloody uprising that lasted three years and claimed the lives of 5,000 Muslims, 500 Jews, and 250 British colonial forces. The result was devastating for the Arab side. The strike ruined their own economy, and Arab society was weakened in its aftermath, partly due to internal fighting. The Jews, on the other hand, knew how to take advantage of the emergency: They built their own port in Tel Aviv because the one in Jaffa was under strike, gained economic independence, and created a community that could feed itself and defend itself by force. This paved the way for the founding of the state in 1948, but not for peace. The 1936 uprising, according to the author, "is not over for Israelis and Palestinians to this day." The book is particularly illuminating because Kessler also vividly explains the pre- and post-history of the uprising without taking a position himself. He shows, for example, how the Jews annexed more and more territory through land purchases, and how powerful Arabs, who publicly condemned the deals, secretly made big money from land sales themselves. He also includes surprising human aspects, such as the long-standing friendship between Palestinian leader Musa Alami and David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister.

Oren Kessler: Palestine 1936: The Great Uprising and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict. Hanser-Verlag, Munich 2025. 384 pp., Fr. 39.90.

«Time of the Magicians» by Hans Wisskirchen

Thomas Ribi · Even well-known writers can be rediscovered. And anniversaries are not a bad opportunity for that. Thomas Mann, for example. This year marks his 150th birthday, and by now everyone agrees that he is a classic. But also a fundamentally apolitical man. The exasperatingly vehement advocacy of an authoritarian state that has outlived its usefulness in "Reflections of an Unpolitical Man," the rejection of the Weimar Republic, the hesitant stance toward Nazi Germany after 1933, and the ambiguous stance during the Cold War seem to confirm the judgment Joachim Fest made in the 1980s: Thomas Mann was "irretrievably alien to politics." And so was his brother Heinrich. When it came to politics, Thomas Mann's son Golo described his father and uncle as "ignorant magicians": gifted with an intuitive eye, but ill-informed and politically naive. Hans Wisskirchen begins with these judgments and writes a dual biography of the dissimilar brothers, based on the conviction that one can only understand both if one considers them together. "Time of the Magicians" contradicts the image of the apolitical Manns and shows how the political and the literary were inextricably linked in their works. In "Buddenbrooks," "The Magic Mountain," and "Doctor Faustus," as well as in "The Subject" and "The Youth of King Henri Quatre." Low points are not concealed. Neither Thomas Mann's enthusiasm for war from 1914 onward nor Heinrich Mann's glorification of Stalinism. And above all, Wisskirchen succeeds in showing how deeply the self-centered milieu of Lübeck's upper middle class shaped the two brothers politically. Each in his own way.

Hans Wisskirchen: Age of the Magicians. Heinrich and Thomas Mann 1871–1955. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2025. 464 pp., Fr. 39.90.

“Letters” by Oliver Sacks

Birgit Schmid · When neurologist Oliver Sacks trained as a doctor in America, he wrote what he called "mammoth letters" to his parents in England: page-long descriptions of his new life, whose freedom filled him with euphoria. He recounted weightlifting competitions and his obsession with reaching the 273-kilogram mark, "which separates men from boys." He offered insights into his clinical work, where he "sliced ​​up brains" to research brain diseases like Alzheimer's. Sacks became famous through books such as "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" and "Awakenings," in which he told stories about his patients and their neurological problems: humorous, sensitive, and humane. He also mastered this "narrative science" in his letters, which are now available in German. Sacks was a manic letter writer throughout his life, engaging in intense exchanges with his family, fellow researchers, and friends. In letters to his lovers, he celebrates the "delicious madness" of love. After his mother's death, he expresses "a terrible, early childhood grief" to his brother. He wrote back and forth with author Susan Sontag and actor Robin Williams. Even shortly before his death from cancer in 2015, the 82-year-old continued to do so. "It's the end for me," he often repeats in these final letters, as if he wanted to testify to his very end that he was alive.

Oliver Sacks: Letters. Edited by Kate Edgar. Translated from English by Hainer Kober. Rowohlt-Verlag, Hamburg, 2025. 1008 pp., CHF 67.90.

“Dangerous Rivalries” by Werner Plumpe

Thomas Ribi · Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been using natural gas supplies as leverage to make EU states compliant, US President Trump is threatening tariffs to strengthen its own economy, and China is announcing countermeasures: economic warfare is back. But perhaps it never disappeared. Because every war is also an economic war. And it always has been, as Werner Plumpe shows in his book "Dangerous Rivalries": In order to assert itself militarily, it could in many cases be decisive for a warring party to also harm its opponent economically by attempting to deprive them of their means of subsistence. Wars often escalated to such an extent that the economic consequences assumed unimaginable dimensions. Plumpe cites the Thirty Years' War as an example. In 1648, the territory of present-day Germany was devastated, even if this was not the primary war aim of the opposing coalition. But the German territories declined in importance as an economic factor for a long time, in some cases even into modern times. When people talk about economic warfare today, however, they're talking about something else: targeted economic or trade policy measures intended to weaken other states as competitors and give one's own country an advantage: embargoes, tariffs, trade barriers. In his brilliantly written book, Plumpe vividly describes examples from the early modern period to the present day. He shows that economic warfare has been successful in individual cases. And explains why they generally harm both parties.

Werner Plumpe: Dangerous Rivalries. Economic Wars – from the Beginnings of Globalization to Trump's Deal Policy. Rowohlt-Verlag, Berlin 2025. 320 pp., Fr. 38.90.

“Are Rivers Living Beings?” by Robert Macfarlane

Marion Löhndorf · Robert Macfarlane knew that the seemingly strange question in the title of his book would be difficult to answer: Are rivers living beings? Even if there were times when rivers were considered gods and named accordingly: Dana (later the Danube), Deva (the Dee), Tamesa (the Thames), Sinnann (the Shannon). Macfarlane argues that rivers should no longer be viewed merely as natural resources, but as living entities. He travels to Ecuador, India, and Canada to search for traces, but also talks about the waterways on his own doorstep. The situation is particularly precarious in England, with scandals about its polluted waterways making the rounds in the media almost daily. Once clean river water became a health hazard, and even swimming in it made people sick: "When we finally opened our eyes and saw the catastrophe, it was almost too late." The book could hardly seem more timely. But it is not an ecological essay. Macfarlane casts his net broadly, interweaving scientific, political, and sociological observations with quotations from literature and philosophy and deeply personal travel accounts. He combines disparate elements with great elegance and ease of reading. His writing about nature is captivating, surprising, and insightful, only occasionally a little more esoteric than is necessary. Whether in the brief outline of our relationship with rivers or in the stories about people he encounters on his journeys to the springs and waterways, one senses the lyrical enthusiasm for nature of the author, who also teaches as a literature professor at Cambridge and is one of England's best-known nature writers.

Robert Macfarlane: Are Rivers Living Beings? Translated from English by Frank Sievers and Andreas Jandl. Ullstein-Verlag, Berlin 2025. 416 pp., Fr. 44.90.

“To Be or to Play” by Dominik Graf

Andreas Scheiner · When Dominik Graf thinks about acting, he thinks, for example, of a "really great German actor who has the strange habit of closing his mouth after every single line." Graf finds this annoying because it gives each line "something final, conclusive." He absolutely wants to work with the actor, but only if he doesn't always close his mouth. How can he teach this to the man? He doesn't want to unsettle his actor during rehearsals. Otherwise, the poor man would tear himself apart in front of the mirror while practicing: "My God, what do I look like when I make that mouth movement? I have to break myself of that habit, but my God, I can't do it." It would be better to address the actor about it ("quietly") after the first attempt at filming: "That was great, but can you please stop closing your mouth like that after every line, because that looks like the postmark you use to send every text." Of course, interrupting an actor "right in the middle of the hottest work process" is tough, Graf admits. But it works. In this way, beautifully casual and blunt, the director – himself the son of an actor and actress – recounts his experiences with the profession. Unfortunately, he doesn't reveal the name of the actor with the mouth problem. Instead, there are entertaining digressions. About "trash acting" in pornography, for example. Or the truly great German filmmaker ("In the Face of Crime," "Fabian or The Gang to the Dogs") raves about Hollywood stars like Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, who delivered "a complete seminar on power struggles and positional shifts" in one scene in Michael Mann's "Heat." No one needs to tell such masters to shut their mouths.

Dominik Graf: To Be or to Act. On Film Acting. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2025. 391 pp., Fr. 39.90.

«The Disappeared of London 38» by Philippe Sands

Thomas Ribi · On October 16, 1998, Augusto Pinochet was arrested. He had undergone an operation in a London clinic and was asleep when the police entered his room. The arrest of the Chilean ex-dictator sparked reactions around the world. There was joy, but also disbelief that the unfathomable man had actually been caught. But above all, questions arose: Would Pinochet be held accountable for the human rights violations he was accused of? Under what title? And before which court? The Chilean government protested, and Pinochet's son spoke of a violation of international norms. As a former president and senator for life, the generalissimo enjoyed immunity in their view. Three years later, Pinochet stood trial. The British-French writer and lawyer Philippe Sands was involved in the trial. He began researching and discovered the story behind the story. In connection with another book, Sands had come across Walther Rauff: the SS Sturmbannführer and group leader in Hitler's Reich Security Main Office, who had developed mobile gas chambers for the Nazis. In 1949, he fled to South America, ran a crab farm in Tierra del Fuego, and became Pinochet's expert in interrogation and torture methods. Rauff and Pinochet's paths crossed at Londres 38, an inconspicuous house in Santiago that served as the headquarters of the secret police from 1973 onwards. Here, people were interrogated, tortured, and killed. In his brilliantly narrated book, Philippe Sands unravels the trial against Augusto Pinochet. And against this backdrop, he tells a story of violence and murder that stretches over half a century.

Philippe Sands: The Disappeared of London 38. About Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2025. 624 pp., CHF 43.90.

“My Next Breath” by Jeremy Renner

Andreas Scheiner · On New Year's Day 2023, Hollywood star Jeremy Renner is run over by a six-ton ​​snowcat. It happens as he is trying to clear the driveway to his house above Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The tracked vehicle begins to slide on the icy asphalt. Renner steps out of the cab to get a better view. In doing so, he loses his balance and is thrown into the snow. Driverless, the vehicle heads straight toward his 27-year-old nephew. The actor is forced to react. He dives back toward the cab. But the jump fails. He tumbles over the front of the tracked chassis, first hitting his head hard on the ground. Then the machine rolls over him. The track has six wheels, each, as Renner writes, "surrounded by a ribbed track made of 76 teardrop-shaped steel ties with sharp ends." He feels the vehicle digging into his body as it lies on the icy asphalt: "Skull, jaw, cheekbones, molars: fibula, tibia, lungs, eye sockets, braincase, hip, ulna, legs, arms, skin, crack, crack, crash, squash, crash." 38 bones (at least) are broken, if not crushed. "Fact: I can see my left eye with my right eye," he says, describing how an eyeball is forced out of his skull. When Jeremy Renner describes the accident in "My Next Breath," one imagines oneself in a splatter horror film. And then increasingly in a touching drama. For the man capable of heroic deeds as the Marvel superhero Hawkeye is not only recounting the fatal New Year's morning. Above all, it tells a juicy, beautifully over-the-top survivor story about someone who heroically fought his way back to life. The book actually has the potential to be a movie.

Jeremy Renner: My Next Breath – The Story of My Survival. Translated from the American by Johannes Sabinski. Penguin Publishing, Munich 2025. 288 pp., CHF 37.90.

«Pineapple» by Kaori O'Connor

Claudia Mäder · There is no dish, really none, that doesn't gain in appeal with it. Steak? Juicier with pineapple. Meatloaf, cheese toast, baked beans? Everything's better with sweet slices! A good hundred years ago, recipe booklets like "99 Delicious Pineapple Temptations" advised the lavish use of the fruit. They were conceived by Hawaiian industrialists. They had begun canning pineapples around 1900, but many consumers eyed canned goods with skepticism – free recipe tips were provided to help them develop a taste for it. The success was resounding; today, the pineapple is the second most consumed tropical fruit after the banana. This is remarkable, because for a long time it was an absolute luxury item: Anthropologist Kaori O'Connor traces the fruit's career after Europeans discovered it in the Caribbean in the 15th century. Her enchantingly designed book takes readers far beyond the confines of their own horizons, delving deep into economic and social history. The fortunes of the pineapple are closely linked to European expansion: in the early modern period, it reached South America, Asia, and Africa on Spanish and Portuguese ships—but it refused to thrive at home on the Old Continent. Clever minds here did invent the first greenhouses to cultivate pineapples, but this was so rare that one fruit could cost up to 2,000 francs. Consequently, pineapples only appeared on the tables of the nobility. Only when steamships made imports easier in the 19th century did prices drop—and when imports of canned goods finally exploded, the pineapple, once a staple on steaks, toast, and baked beans, lost all its nobility.

Kaori O'Connor: Pineapple. The Story of a Rise. Translated from English by Andrea Kunstmann. HarperCollins, Hamburg 2025. 192 pp., CHF 34.90.

«Unwanted» by Stefanie Schüler-Springorum

Thomas Ribi · On May 8, 1945, the surrender of the German Wehrmacht came into effect. The Second World War was over. Officially. But it wasn't as if everything had suddenly changed. For several weeks, cabinet meetings continued to take place at the last seat of the German Reich government in Flensburg. And for many Germans, the old beliefs survived. Antisemitism and racism existed after the war just as they did during the "Third Reich." Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, Director of the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University of Berlin, tries to show this. The numbers seem to prove her right. As late as 1950, almost 40 percent of Germans believed it was better "not to have any Jews in the country." They were made to understand this. People were friendly and supported them. But they wanted to forget the Holocaust as quickly as possible. And the Jews were in the way of this. But not only them. Using the example of Sinti and Roma, as well as homosexuals, who were also persecuted by the Nazis, Schüler-Springorum shows how persistent prejudices persisted among the population – and among the authorities. As recently as the 1950s, the Federal Court of Justice described "Gypsies" as "primitive prehistoric people." The book focuses on the perspective of the victims. This is legitimate, and the author herself admits that it is "one-sided." Antisemitism did not exist only in Germany, but here it became apocalyptic reality with the Shoah. You don't have to be a Nazi to discriminate against Travelers and homosexuals. Germany changed after the war. But for those persecuted by the National Socialists, it remained a cold country for a long time. Schüler-Springorum vividly demonstrates this.

Stefanie Schüler-Springorum: Unwanted. West German Democracy and the Victims of the Nazi Regime. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2025. 256 pp., Fr. 37.90.

“The Big Bang of Our Language” by Laura Spinney

Paul Jandl · If there is such a thing as success stories in the development of languages, then this would be one. Three out of five people worldwide speak an Indo-European language today. Spanning Greek tragedies and Beowulf to the Indian Vedas, a cultural sphere whose earliest origins could not be clearly located until recently is elusive. In her deliberately narrative book *The Big Bang of Our Language*, British science journalist and author Laura Spinney sheds light on the darkness. It is an adventure story that shows the complex ways in which the collaborative research of genetics, archaeology, and linguistics leads to new insights. Spinney locates the *Big Bang*, which probably occurred less suddenly than the title suggests, in the territory of present-day Ukraine. Approximately six thousand years ago, ancient European tribes intermingled with nomadic peoples from the Caucasus-Volga region, and the so-called Yamnaya culture emerged. A revolutionary phenomenon, overthrowing old orders and rapidly spreading westward and eastward. The language of the new nomads was part of this triumphant advance. Indo-European had its beginnings here and branched out further over the millennia. Laura Spinney's flamboyant book strives to present both factual knowledge and readability. There is also a political conclusion drawn from six thousand years of Indo-European culture: language needs change, it needs permeability, or it will die a cruel death.

Laura Spinney: The Big Bang of Our Language. Translated from English by Stephanie Singh. Hanser-Verlag, Munich 2025. 336 pp., Fr. 39.90.

“Atlas of Art Crimes” by Laura Evans

Philipp Meier · Leonardo, Monet, Cézanne: Great art fascinates. But many are even more fascinated by major art crimes. This doesn't refer to the vandalism of climate activists who spill paint on important paintings or stick themselves to canvases. When one thinks of art and crime, one tends to think of the theft of the "Mona Lisa." The woman with the enigmatic smile is considered the most famous work of art of all time. But that wasn't always the case. It rose to fame through a theft. In August 1911, it was stolen from the Louvre in Paris by three Italian brothers. This is what made it world-famous. The American art historian Laura Evans tells the fascinating story of how the Gioconda, as this masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci is also known, came about, but above all, how it returned to the Louvre with great fanfare – as the first icon of mass art, so to speak. Herself captivated by cinematic robberies and blatant forgeries, she doesn't let this story stop there in her "Atlas of Art Crimes." In this well-illustrated volume, she presents numerous hair-raising cases, including that of arguably the greatest art forger: The name Elmyr de Hory, who has been the subject of novels, films, and even a musical, gives art collectors and museum directors goosebumps. In the 1950s and 1960s, de Hory forged over a thousand works, including countless Modigliani works. Many are still in renowned museums today.

Laura Evans: Atlas of Art Crimes. Theft, Forgery, Vandalism. Prestel-Verlag, Munich 2025. 224 pp., CHF 49.90.