Who are we without work? What do we need to live? What makes us us? David Schalko’s What the Day Brings is a fascinating commentary on the radically changing world of work – a novel that is grotesque, funny and disturbing to the end.
Felix is a single entrepreneur in his late thirties. With his sustainable catering start-up, he finally seems to be on the right track. But then the pandemic hits, the orders stop coming in and the bank refuses to give him another loan. Felix has no choice but to shut down the company and downsize his own life, selling his car, furniture and jewelry so that he can at least hold on the apartment he inherited from his mother.
To make ends meet, he is forced to rent it out eight days a month. Month after month, Felix couch surfs, gets tangled up in bizarre stories because he’s ashamed of the truth, clashes with good friends, has doubts, staggers through the ruins of his former life, searches for meaning that’s not connected to work, and ultimately retreats more and more from life, becoming a stranger to himself, falling, falling. Where does he touch down? Who can stop him?
