FOREIGN HANSER RIGHTS - Hanser Literaturverlage

FOREIGN
NAGEL & KIMCHE
RIGHTS
Margrit Schriber
Das zweitbeste Glück
Second-best luck
Flying high on celluloid kisses – the moving story of a femme fatale
On the 7 th of July 1919, the 24-year-old actress Julie Helene (Leny) Bider put
a bullet through her head in an upmarket Zurich hotel. Only hours before, her
brother, the famed pilot Oskar Bider, had had a fatal accident in his plane. A
spellbinding historical novel about two siblings whose adventures would keep
a whole nation in suspense.
Thanks to her part in a scandalous military comedy and an infamous kiss, Leny Bider burst
onto the burgeoning silent cinema scene – a beautiful young woman, a model and fashion
designer already famous as her brother Oskar’s co-pilot. A pioneer of aviation, he broke one
record after another: first crossing of the Pyrenees, first crossing of the Alps, first non-stop
flight from Berne to Paris. The fun-loving and dashing couple dominated magazine headlines,
embodying the future in an era when aviation and films were in their infancy. The
public was shocked to the core by the death of the young diva.
Drawing on Leny’s diaries, Margrit Schriber traces the life of this sensitive but rebellious girl
from a good family with astute perception and profound compassion. In spite of losing her
parents at a young age, Leny managed to fulfil her dream of becoming an actress against all
odds, but was ultimately crushed by the death of the brother she doted on.
Margrit Schriber
was born in Lucerne in 1939; she currently has homes both in Zofingen and the Dordogne.
Her literary works received a number of prizes. So far, Nagel & Kimche have published ten
of her novels, most recently Die falsche Herrin (2008) and Die hässlichste Frau der Welt
(2009).
Sales to Foreign Countries
Die häßlichste Frau der Welt: Poland (Hidari)
Novel. 176 pages. Hardcover
Publication date: September 26, 2011
F I CTI O N