One of Germany's greatest contemporary novelists and playwrights, Lange's first appearance in English is a major event.
The themes of absence pervade all the works in this unsettling, unusual collection. In The Poster, a German bank director, strolling though a park in Vienna, adds his name to a list of missing persons, thereby writing himself out of his humdrum life. Boarding a train to Venice, his travels intersect with that of a hooded stranger. The New Tenant mesmerizes the old concierge, with his mysterious comings and goings. And In Defence of Nothingness, the illness of a talented boy and the lack of communication within a family, ends in a horrific climax.
In all the stories, the characters find themselves at the mercy of events over which they have no control, and which are perhaps not quite real…
Missing Persons has been translated by Helen Atkins
About the Author
Hartmut Lange was born in Berlin in 1937. He studied film and began his career as a playwright. His first play made his name in theatrical circles and he was appointed artistic director of the Deutsches Theatre in East Berlin. Conflicting with official cultural policy, he left for West Berlin in 1965 where he continues to live.
His writing has won considerable acclaim and he has been awarded numerous literary prizes including the prestigious Adenauer Prize in 1998. His books have been translated into French, Italian and Spanish. Missing Persons (published in German as Italienische Novellen) is his first work to be translated into English.
