Robert Menasse
Austria
Robert Menasse, born in Vienna in 1954, studied German language and literature, philosophy and political science, and obtained his doctorate with a thesis on the figure of the outsider in the literary world. Menasse taught philosophical and aesthetic theory at the University of São Paulo. Since 1988, he has lived mainly in Vienna as a freelance writer.
Robert Menasse has tirelessly made the history of Europe the subject of his writings. His latest work, Die Lebensentscheidung, combines history of the European Union with a family history free of sentimentality. Franz Fiala, the main character in Menasse’s novella, resigns in frustration from his job as a civil servant at the European Commission. Instead, he begins to care for his mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, and finds a new purpose: ensuring that his mother does not have to outlive him. Robert Menasse draws the central motif from Franz Werfel’s novella The Death of a Small-Town Man. The Life Decision follows Fiala’s physical decline in a language that manages to convey both unease and hope in equal measure. The SWR sums it up: “If an EU standard for prose that gets under your skin were to be planned – this novella could serve as a benchmark.”
Die Lebensentscheidung. Amendment. Suhrkamp 2026
Die Welt von morgen. Ein souveränes demokratisches Europa – und seine Feinde. Suhrkamp 2024
Die Erweiterung. Novel. Suhrkamp 2022
Back...
