As of: April 2, 2024, 6:06 p.m
By: Sven Trautwein
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Axel Hacke's new release has one of the longest book titles currently and goes straight to number 1 on the Spiegel bestsellers.
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It is a plea for cheerfulness and a book whose title length can hardly be topped at the moment: “About cheerfulness in difficult times and the question of how important the seriousness of life should be to us” is the name of the new publication by Axel Hacke, which is within a This month has already made it into Spiegel's non-fiction bestseller list. In first place. This should make the author extremely happy and cheerful. And the content also pleases the reader.
Axel Hacke's “About the cheerfulness in difficult times and the question of how important the seriousness of life should be to us” takes first place in non-fiction. © Oliver Mengedoht/Imago
Even though Axel Hacke's book is neither on the longlist of the NDR non-fiction prize nor on the shortlist, Hacke managed to get into it immediately after its publication with “About the cheerfulness in difficult times and the question of how important the seriousness of life should be to us”. the Spiegel bestseller list in the non-fiction category.
“Life is serious, art is cheerful,” wrote Friedrich Schiller. But what exactly is cheerfulness? And how do we get them back into our serious lives? In times when we intuitively feel different in the face of global crises, Axel Hacke sets out to search for an almost forgotten state of mind, for an attitude towards life in which we have become strangely inexperienced. Entertaining, clever and personal, he explores the origins of the term, explains what distinguishes cheerfulness from humor and happiness and why it cannot be had without the seriousness of life.
Blurb/Dumont
Axel Hacke: “About cheerfulness in difficult times and the question of how important the seriousness of life should be to us”
A book that is intended to give courage in times of crisis. Especially in times full of wars and climate change, the question always arises: can we still be happy and how do we face all these circumstances calmly? The best-selling author told
NDR
about
his book “A House for Many Summers” that readers would have a lot of fun with his stories if he also had fun writing them. He agrees with thriller author Lee Child. Lee Child also often said that the reader can tell when the author had fun writing. This joy of writing can also be transferred well to the author's new non-fiction book.
Hacke told the
Hamburger Abendblatt
that it wasn't initially intended to be a book, but just a short essay. A friend's request came at exactly the right time for him after the severe corona pandemic. In the end, he also saw working on the book as a help for himself, he reveals. He now tries to think about cheerfulness five times a day.
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There are many questions that Axel Hacke explores in his book: What actually is cheerfulness? When do you feel cheerful and can you actually become so? Do you need drugs, pills or humor? And is there even an answer to all these questions? For the author, any lifting of the corners of the mouth or laughter yoga is a good way to practice cheerfulness.
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The
German Press Agency (dpa)
reports that Hacke's non-fiction book is not a “self-care” read. It's more like sitting in a café with a good friend and discussing the meaning of life. In no way does he want to downplay or deny the current problems. With the book he tries to show how important daily cheerfulness is and that it is also about analyzing how one can be cheerful at all.
Axel Hacke: “About cheerfulness in difficult times and the question of how important the seriousness of life should be to us”
2023 Dumont, ISBN-13 978-3-8321-6808-7
Price: Hardcocer €20, e-book €16.99, 221 pages (different format)
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Axel Hoe
Axel Hacke is one of Germany's most prominent authors and his works have been translated into many languages. Over the course of his career he has been honored with various awards, including the Joseph Roth Prize, two Egon Erwin Kisch Prizes, the Theodor Wolff Prize and, most recently, the Ben Witter Prize in 2019. He works as a columnist for the SZ magazine.