David Wagner

Author David Wagner's writing is a mirror-image of himself. Not because it is merely a representation of his life, but because his personality and works display the same characteristics. (…) Six years ago, the writer was given a liver transplant on account of his congenital autoimmune hepatitis. As a child, Wagner, who was born in 1971, knew that his liver would not last a lifetime. He has now written a book about the life for which it did suffice, and about the new lease of life given him by the transplant (…)
What does the book sound like? Here is an example: “So what has brought you here? Come on, neighbour, tell me your story. And my own story, how does it go? What if it ended here? Suddenly - after all, I am just lying around and have time, plenty of time, to think about it - I can see from here something like a life. Did it have to be almost over before I managed to notice that?” The question mark is one of the stylistic devices Wagner uses to blur the line between the narrator’s internal monologues and the author’s self-disclosure. (…)
Wagner’s writing ideal is that of a hunger artist - reduce, compress, disappear. Here, author and person, life and art merge.

Andreas Platthaus: “Meine eigene Geschichte, wie geht die?”
© Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 21 February 2013