A marital quarrel in Athens, in the midst of the euro crisis, turns the life of Johannes Lohmer, a romantic Viennese, into a politicized fever dream. While his wife Harriet, a committed leftist journalist, enthusiastically provides refugee assistance, Lohmer fears the global advance of political Islam and sees a “second fascism” at work. Nonetheless, the bohemian dutifully travels at Harriet’s side to the hot spots of our times. He witnesses a reeling nation, sees all political debates as lies and himself as a liar, and yet – out of fear for his “harmonious marriage” – finds himself constantly worrying about how not to look like a turncoat or right-winger in Harriet’s eyes. His “love-driven opportunism” leads to incredibly comical scenes, whether in the refugee shelter, at the citizens’ meeting, in Muslim Berlin Neukölln, during the rise of the AfD and FPÖ (respectively Germany and Austria’s rightwing parties) or during the couple’s reconciliation trip to the South of France…
A novel about the year of the refugee crisis that, in a “Lottmannian” manner, chronicles the precariousness of basic values in many places, and the internal contradictions and new tensions of our present day.
