Details
288 Pages, gebunden
publishing house:
S. FISCHER
publication date:
22.09.2016
ISBN 978-3-10-002487-9
Content
Is our present a ghost story?
A plane is standing on the runway, ready for take-off but not going anywhere. A man attending a conference disappears, a child establishes a dictatorship, callers in the night report of riots and violence. Is this a nightmare, a TV series or naked reality? The daily images of our reality resemble scenes from a horror show. Someone is there. Watching. Is this really us? Kathrin Röggla looks very closely. In her eerie, surreal stories she uncovers rifts, blind corners and the uncanny presence within us. Danger zones are spreading slowly, disorientation reigns, communication breaks down completely. This concerns political discourse as much as the blind activism of an enraged civilian, the fall of the middle class or a family reunion somewhere in the German provinces. In concise prose and with acute intelligence, the author devises political, social and personal scenarios that come together to form a night-time vision of our ghostly present.
About Kathrin Röggla
Kathrin Röggla, born in Salzburg in 1971, lives in Berlin. She writes prose and drama and develops radio plays. Her books have won her numerous awards, including the Italo Svevo Prize, the Anton Wildgans Prize and the Arthur Schnitzler Prize. wir schlafen nicht was awarded the Prize of the SWR-Bestenliste and the Bruno Kreisky Prize for political literature. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag has in print: Niemand lacht rückwärts, Abrauschen, Irres Wetter, really ground zero, wir schlafen nicht (2006) and the prose collection die alarmbereiten (2012), which won the Franz Hessel Prize. A collection of essays and plays was published in spring 2013 under the title: besser wäre: keine.
English sample