O-TÖNE

Norbert Gstrein artfully reflects the murderous 20th century in the form of a man whose life remains defined by the war he narrowly escaped in 1914. Robert Menasse pits his EU-weary hero against his elderly mother in a bitterly comic battle for survival. Equally not to be underestimated is the runaway mother, with whom Birgit Birnbacher sensitively confronts her nervous protagonist and her even more fidgety son. Elias Hirschl crafts a dazzling array of ideas within an opulent narrative tableau and, against astonishing backdrops, sets out in search of the perfect language. Josef Winkler writes himself, in a narrative frenzy, into a marginal figure from his previous work: the sister who looked after the rebellious Josef at home from an early age and who herself suffered a difficult fate.

The main programme features three premieres: Sandra Gugič was living in Tel Aviv-Jaffa when the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 changed everything. As she found herself, with her young child, on the fringes of society at the time, her text—with its distinct playground perspective—offers an example of a very different kind of testimony. Eva Menasse explores the dialectical connections between property and happiness, house-building and homelessness, farewells and new beginnings with ironic serenity. In the long-awaited new book by Paulus Hochgatterer, 16-year-old Ingemar reflects not only on himself but also on the great questions of humanity, such as justice. When a cat joins the family—one that truly needs all seven of its lives—new hopes and paths open up for him.

Many of this year’s debut novels explore themes of heritage and family. And it is striking how often these books are full of humour: the Salzburg-based author Katharina Braschel tells the story of a Danube Swabian family. In his debut, the German-Austrian author David Vajda traces a widely ramified European family history. In Lisa Wölfl’s book, the first-person narrator finally finds a job she can live on: she becomes a matchmaker on a dating platform. The Sarajevo-born, Carinthia-based author Manuela Tomić also presents a funny book. Just as the protagonist is working on a text about war, flight and family trauma, the “Fratz” turns up at her place and refuses to leave. Sarah Wipauer takes us into the Viennese underworld. There, a pneumatic tube system has become established that will amaze you. 

Humour is also to be found in the debut novel by the Bregenz-based author Hans-Joachim Gögl: following his father’s death, the son spends exactly three days a week, for five weeks, living out his father’s life. Sasa Hanten, an art collector and lawyer, recounts with verve the lifelong friendship between a gay company heir and his best friend and explores happiness as a project. And the Salzburg-based author Marlen Mairhofer reinvents the much-maligned genre of the ‘girls’ book’: as a modern response to ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

Come and have a look! Drop by!