Markus Werner - Böcker

Scrounged from his notebooks and hearsay, this is the story of a schoolteacher named Konrad Z?ndel: a philosopher, a wanna-be writer; scattered, self-conscious, glum, anxious, unlucky, discontent... At the end of his rope, he decides to flee his workaday life at all costs, only to find escape always a little beyond his reach. First his tooth falls out in the sight of other travelers, then he finds a severed finger in a restroom on a train. In fact, Z?ndel seems on the verge of falling to bits, as do his words, thoughts, wife, and world--will there be anything left, and anyone to hold the pieces? "Z?ndel's Exit" is a Chaplinesque comedy of disintegration, never knowing if it's coming or going.

Moritz Wenk is a moderately unsuccessful artist workng part-time as a commercial painter. He forms a harmonious if uncommitted couple with Judith, a dental hygienist. During a hot week in summer, Moritz reflects on his own position in life while mediating a marital dispute between two friends, hosting a dinner party for neighbors he hates, and turning thirty-eight. Told with Werner’s customary charm, spleen, and baroque artistry, Cold Shoulder is a comic portrait of an unexceptional modern man struggling to make the decisions that will bring his life meaning.