Rights sold to:
Russia (AST), France (Métailié)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Adriana Hidalgo), Slovenia (Litera), Domestic Rights Sales: German Book Club (Der Club Bertelsmann)
Adomeit’s Will / Wäldchestag
Novel
aspekte Prize for Literature 2000
What is reality? This question is explored in fascinating style in this inventive, finely-drawn novel, which touches on language, the social construction of meaning, the relationship between things, events and our existences, and the way in which we try to make sense of all these in words.
Yet here is no abstruse treatise but a story in the true sense, an acutely observed comedy of manners, and an often amusing depiction of human hypocrisy, narrow-mindedness and...
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What is reality? This question is explored in fascinating style in this inventive, finely-drawn novel, which touches on language, the social construction of meaning, the relationship between things, events and our existences, and the way in which we try to make sense of all these in words.
Yet here is no abstruse treatise but a story in the true sense, an acutely observed comedy of manners, and an often amusing depiction of human hypocrisy, narrow-mindedness and fickleness.
The chain of events the book describes is set in motion by the death of Adomeit, an enigmatic and maverick old man in a small village in the Wetterau, just north of Frankfurt, in which everybody knows everybody else’s business, or thinks he does. The entire story is reported second-hand, or even third-hand, by the narrator, whose role is simply to relay the information, speculation and rumour passed on by a young friend of Adomeit’s as they wait in the queue at the local health insurance office. The entire German text is in the subjunctive of reported speech, thus distancing the reader from what is being described and warning him that the version of the events he is hearing is not necessarily the only one. The key to ›truth‹ is language, and language is seperate from ›reality‹. Stories develop their own dynamic as Adomeit’s death, funeral and the reading of his will interfere with and subsequently influence other narrative strands within the village. The movements, machinations and arguments of a host of disparate characters are gleefully reported and discussed by the multitude of the ever-present, all-seeing locals.
This is a stylish, elegant and entertaining piece of work, containing elements of the detective novel – who is interested in Adomeit and his will, and why? – and ending with a scene in which one of the young characters seizes a fake weapon in the local pub and is reported in the press as the attempted instigator of a murderous rampage. A case of existential confusion? Who can tell? Read and make your guess. new books in german, autumn 2000
2000, 314 pages
Persons
Andreas Maier
Author
Andreas Maier, born in Bad Nauheim, Hesse, in 1967, studied philosophy and German philology, and subsequently classical philology. He lives near Frankfurt am Main. Among numerous other honours, he was awarded the ZDF-»aspekte«-Literaturpreis, the Robert-Gernhardt-Preis, the Wilhelm-Raabe-Literaturpreis and the Franz-Hessel-Preis.
Andreas Maier
Author
Andreas Maier, born in Bad Nauheim, Hesse, in 1967, studied philosophy and German philology, and subsequently classical philology. He lives near...
© Jürgen Bauer
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Latest first
Year of Publication: 2023
Andreas MaierYear of Publication: 2023
The Homeland
Germany in the early 1970s: a country full of fear of everything foreign. The only Italian at school seems like an alien being. In the 80s, it’s the Turkish people who are the first to put the tables outside the restaurants. As the people of Wetterau celebrate the first kebabs in the district as »resistance food«, Hitler, who had long since disappeared, begins to conquer the...
Year of Publication: 2021
Andreas MaierYear of Publication: 2021
The Cities
In the newest instalment of his book series Ortsumgehung, Andreas Maier takes us on a journey. He paints the picture of the past decades by reference to the cities and landscapes that flanked the tourist trails of a society obsessed with mobility.
There is the car trip with his parents to the hated holiday apartment in Brixen when he is seven, or hitchhiking to the south...
Year of Publication: 2019
Andreas MaierYear of Publication: 2019
The Family
At the end of this novel, narrator Andreas is 28 years old, living in in Frankfurt am Main, studying, among other things, theories of truth. Andreas Maier tells the story of how stumbling blocks...
Rights sold to:
Greece (World Books)
Year of Publication: 2018
Andreas MaierYear of Publication: 2018
The University
Goethe University Frankfurt. 1988, 1989. An entirely different degree back then: in short, nothing less than complete freedom. From drinking beer in the pub »Doctor Flotte« to seminars on truth theory (which see the philosophy students rushing to the doctor’s already mid-semester) a complete loss of self is just around the corner for our protagonist, while time too is getting turned on its...
Year of Publication: 2017
Andreas Maier, Christine BüchnerYear of Publication: 2017
Bullau
A colourful, extremely personal combination of memory, research, and reflection turns into an approach towards the old-fashioned field of natural history. Based on walks in Wetterau and the Wendland, in South Tyrol and the Odenwald, Christiane Büchner and Andreas Maier map out their éducation naturelle. Their »treatise on the blessings of the spirit that the...
Year of Publication: 2016
Andreas MaierYear of Publication: 2016
The District
Andreas Maier’s The District is the latest volume of his insightful and illuminating book series Ortsumgehung. It deals with the exploration of life itself through the eyes of a prepubescent boy and his developing relationship with books, music and theatre and their interconnection with human existence. In the end he will comprehend the one true myth of art: Do...
Year of Publication: 2015
Andreas MaierYear of Publication: 2015
The Town
A dense, atmospheric novel about a boy’s first love, his first consciousness, his first attempt to define himself as a person. A moving memoir of the age between childhood and...
Rights sold to:
Denmark (Batzer)
Year of Publication: 2013
Andreas MaierYear of Publication: 2013
The Street
In the beginning it was nothing more than doctor games, but now there’s an adult-like urgency to them. Later, the teen magazine Bravo comes out and there is, for the first time, a language...
Rights sold to:
Denmark (Rosenkilde & Bahnhof)
Year of Publication: 2011
Andreas MaierYear of Publication: 2011
The House
With The House Andreas Maier continues what he started with his hit novel Das Zimmer (The Room). One book, one house, one life, close up and then seen at an almost...
Rights sold to:
Denmark (Rosenkilde & Bahnhof)
Year of Publication: 2010
Andreas MaierYear of Publication: 2010
The Room
Uncle J, the novel’s anti-hero, is not a character you readily identify with. Uncle J was a forceps delivery, which explains why he is not really all there. Still a child in many ways, he has...
Rights sold to:
Denmark (Rosenkilde & Bahnhof), Norway (Hovde & Brekke)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights digital (Frisch & Co.), Spanish world rights (Adriana Hidalgo), Czech Republic (Archa), Macedonia (Goten)
Year of Publication: 2009
Andreas MaierYear of Publication: 2009
Sanssouci
Like a folk festival, Andreas Maier paints a droll and bold, ironically affectionate picture of contemporary German society, this time in the center of provincial East Germany.
On a hot summer day, mourners assemble at Frankfurt's main cemetery to attend the funeral of Max Hornung, a director who suffered a fatal accident. After moving away from Frankfurt, he had lived in...
On a hot summer day, mourners assemble at Frankfurt's main cemetery to attend the funeral of Max Hornung, a director who suffered a fatal accident. After moving away from Frankfurt, he had lived in...
Year of Publication: 2005
Andreas MaierYear of Publication: 2005
Kirillow
Studying together at Frankfurt University, Frank Kober and Julian Nagel are more than mere friends, and in fact something like kindred spirits. They do not appear bound by any particular faculty but...
Rights sold to:
Russia (AST), Poland (ATUT)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Adriana Hidalgo Editora), Netherlands (Ambo/Anthos)
Year of Publication: 2002
Andreas MaierYear of Publication: 2002
Klausen
One thing is clear: »Klausen is the scene of the crime.« But what really happens in this dream holiday village in South Tyrol is the subject of heated controversy. There is talk of an...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Open Letter), Russia (AST), France (Actes Sud)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Tusquets), Italy (Aliberti)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag)