Daniel Schreiber

At no time before have so many people lived alone, and never has loneliness been so widely or keenly felt. Why, in a society of individualists, is living alone perceived as a shameful failure? And can we ever be happy on our own?Drawing on personal experience, as well as philosophy and sociology, Daniel Schreiber explores the tension between the desire for solitude and freedom, and for companionship, intimacy and love. Along the way he illuminates the role that friendships play in our lives – can they be a response to the loss of meaning in a world in crisis? A profoundly enlightening book on how we want to live, Alone spent almost a year on Germany’s bestseller list.

Susan Sontag (1933-2004) was one of America's first celebrity intellectuals. In the first biography to be published since her death, Daniel Schreiber portrays a glamorous woman full of contradictions and inner conflicts, whose life mirrored the cultural upheavals of her time. While known primarily as a cultural critic and novelist, Sontag was also a filmmaker, stage director, and dramatist. It was her status as a pop icon that was unusual for an American intellectual: she was filmed by Andy Warhol and Woody Allen, photographed by Annie Leibovitz and Diane Arbus, and her likeness adorned advertisements for Absolut vodka. Drawing on newly available sources, including interviews with Nadine Gordimer, Robert Wilson, and Sontag's son, David Rieff, as well as on myriad interviews given by Sontag and her extensive correspondence with her friend and publisher Roger Straus, Schreiber explores the roles that Sontag played in influencing American public cultural and political conversations.

FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ALONE'Such a skilled and engaging writer'Deborah Levy'Schreiber's prose is gorgeous, practically silken'Lauren GroffNothing in this world lasts forever. We find the fleeting nature of things impossible to accept - yet as both individuals and as a society, we're constantly confronted by it. In A Time of Loss, Daniel Schreiber looks at a central human experience, connecting the personal and the social: from mourning conflict and climate change, to the personal grief that we're plunged into when a loved-one dies. After the loss of his father, we follow Schreiber around Venice - where the beauty of the world sits so clearly alongside a sense of its impermanence.His subtle and thoughtful insights offer comfort and enrich us at a time when everything seems to provoke fear. It is a personal, gentle book, that ultimately makes a strong plea for optimism and life in the face of loss.

'A book to love and cherish'Deborah Levy, author of The Cost of Living'A beautiful writer and, just as important, a beautiful thinker'Hanya Yanagihara, author of A Little Life 'Friendship is, in fact, as much the topic of this book as aloneness'Sarah Bakewell, GuardianAt no time before have so many people lived alone, and never has loneliness been so widely or keenly felt. Why, in a society of individualists, is living alone perceived as a shameful failure? And can we ever be happy on our own?'A heartfelt memoir on being single, living alone and the existential experience of loneliness'Financial Times'Romantic love, suggests the author, is the lone "grand narrative" to have survived seismic societal shifts in modern times . . . Hermits and intimacy, the taboo of loneliness and the consolation of friendship - all find their place in a meditation that nods to joy and adversity'Observer

The autobiography of Johann K nig, an influential art gallerist who lost his vision at the age of twelve. Andy Warhol, Isa Genzken, On Kawara, Rosemarie Trockel--Johann K nig grew up surrounded by great artists and their art. His hometown of Cologne was recognized as Europe's art capital in the 1980s, largely because of his family's work in the field. The art world, as a result, became his extended family. His father, the renowned curator Kasper K nig, took him on trips to Jeff Koons's studio in New York; Nam June Paik became his godfather after a "Fluxus baptism"; Gerhard Richter was the best man at his parents' wedding. When Johann was eleven, a tragic accident caused him to lose almost all eyesight. Isolated from the world, he found salvation in contemporary art. And when he was only twenty, he took the risk of starting his own gallery. What does it mean to become a gallery owner when you can't see? How can you access art if you can't rely on your eyes? In this memoir, Johann K nig recounts his unique upbringing and equally unique approach to art, one shaped by circumstance and ambition. With distinctive candor, he offers insight into the art world from the perspective of both a true believer and an innovator. Today, with a spectacular gallery located in a Brutalist church in Berlin, he continues his family's legacy while redefining what it means to see art. "A kind of personal statement of faith, and it makes for touching and sometimes funny reading ... A fascinating text."--Kito Nedo, frieze "A very entertaining book."--Kolja Reichert, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung "Open and unabashed ... Refreshing in the gallery business."--Tobias Timm, Die Zeit