Annemarie Schwarzenbach has become a European cult figure for bohemian free spirits since the rediscovery of her works in the late 1980s. "Lyric Novella" is her story of a young man's obsession with a Berlin variete actress. Despite having his future career mapped out for him in the diplomatic service, the young man begins to question all his family values under Sibylle's spell. His family, future, and social standing become irrelevant when set against his overriding compulsion to pick her up every night from the theater so they can go for a drive. Schwarzenbach's clear, psychologically acute prose makes this novella an evocative narrative, with many intriguing parallels to her own life. In fact, she admitted after publication that her hero was in fact a young woman, not a man, leaving little doubt that "Lyric Novella" is a literary tale of lesbian love during socially and politically turbulent times.
