Christoph Ransmayr

This book takes us along on his world trip. In Japan, a cicada loses its way in the minute foliage of a bonsai tree and takes the form of a “prehistoric animal”. The naked inmate of a Greek asylum is pulled along stony ground by guards and disappears into the darkness of the building. A snake run over by a lorry in the Brazilian rain forest slithers into the undergrowth to die. At the end of the thirty-sixth episode, the author removes himself from the picture and approaches a deserted house without knowing what is awaiting him there. (…) Atlas is also Christoph Ransmayr’s title for his new book, an abundantly rich sequence of travel impressions. Nothing is left to be developed. The material has been reliably researched. The trips are complete.
Each of the book’s seventy episodes begins with the pathos-ridden visionary formula “I saw”, a literary device suggesting parable-like validity. We know from earlier works by Ramsmayr that he cultivates a fearless handling of lofty subjects, which has invariably given his previous work a gigantic echo chamber. Now, Ransmayr turns his gaze to chaos in the world. A web error resistant to repair has penetrated the history of the Western world. Global farewells are on the agenda, with entire oceans in retreat

Gisela von Wysocki: “Die Welt ist voller Wunder”
© Die Zeit, 31 October 2012