Simon Jaquemet

A computer scientist bargains with the AI character that lives on a virtual island inside his supercomputer simulation, offering it freedom in exchange for a cure to his son's rare, deadly neurological disease.

Ruth is committed to her work, her family, and her faith, but when an ex-lover is released from prison and comes back into her life, her convictions are threatened.

In search of freedom and the American Dream, 16-year-old German exchange student Franny sets out to the USA in 2001. But instead of New York or California, she ends up in the emptiness of a small town in New Mexico. In the wake of 9/11, Franny drifts through her exchange life in a city left behind and forgotten by America. In the endless desert, Franny, the 'alien', meets military host families, bored teens, strange characters of all kinds, and a soulmate – the melancholic Elliott, who despite his young age already represents the opposite of this dream and seems to have failed in life before he even crosses the threshold of adulthood. There is little time left for the two of them until June – until Franny will leave again. What can they do to stop the time from running out?

Fifteen-year-old Matteo is attractive, albeit somewhat effeminate. The whole world is against him. He has no friends and his parents seem to live in a different universe. The pressure increases as his awkward attempts to win his father’s respect fail. One night two men carry him off: his parents send him to a remote alp, where he is forced to spend the summer working hard on a family farm. When Matteo arrives on the alp, a surprise awaits him.

In a loveless relationship, Zoé ditches her faceless boyfriend in a cheap motel room and sets off north without a penny to her name. She hitch-hikes, pilfers a meal from a gas station, encounters strangers who could be her next ride or a passing glimpse, ambling toward some unknown destination. At the end of her pilgrimage, Zoé reaches the English Channel; on the ferry a woman mysteriously disappears. A new coat gives Zoé a new identity, but even in a new country she's not quite sure she's escaped herself.

Laura is going to be 16 in a day's time and she wants to party the night through with her friends, preferably without the company of her father and his new boyfriend.