Lit.Eifel: "ATOM"

Robert Menasse will read from his novel *Die Lebensentscheidung* at Vogelsang.

Frustrated by the bureaucratic red tape, Franz Fiala makes a “life-changing decision” and quits his job at the European Commission. When he visits his mother in Vienna for her 89th birthday, however, he doesn’t tell her about his early retirement. And his conversation with Nathalie—with whom he’s been in a relationship in Brussels for four years—about their future together also falls flat. Then recurring pains set in that can no longer be ignored. The diagnosis: cancer; it’s unrealistic to expect him to live another year. And suddenly, the only thing that matters is keeping it a secret from his mother, sparing her the pain of watching her son die: “For him, survival could only mean outliving his mother. Hiding his illness from her until her death. It was now a race for survival. That was now the decision that would determine his life.”

Can one decide the course of one’s own life? Not about its end, but—through sheer willpower—about continuing to live longer than would be expected? With existential intensity yet a light touch, Robert Menasse tells the story of a race against death in *The Decision to Live*. Life and death, love and family—that is what this sophisticated and masterfully crafted novella is about.

Robert Menasse was born in Vienna in 1954 and grew up there. He studied German language and literature, philosophy, and political science in Vienna, Salzburg, and Messina, and earned his doctorate in 1980 with a dissertation on “The Type of the Outsider in the Literary World.” Menasse subsequently taught for six years at the University of São Paulo—first as a lecturer in Austrian literature, then as a visiting professor at the Institute for Literary Theory. There, he primarily taught courses on philosophical and aesthetic theories, including those of Hegel, Lukács, Benjamin, and Adorno. Since his return from Brazil in 1988, Robert Menasse has lived primarily in Vienna as a writer and cultural critic. He is the recipient of numerous national and international literary awards.

Moderator:Thomas Kreyes, Managing Director of Vogelsang IP gGmbH

Time: 7:00 p.m., doors open at 6:00 p.m.
Cost: €12 (adults), €6 (reduced)
Location: Schleiden-Vogelsang, Vogelsang IP, Vogelsang 70
Info: 0651. 9790777
www.lit-eifel.de