Book Club Meeting
Michael Ziegelwagner: The Inflatable Kaiser

Tue, 02.10.2018
6:30 PM Goethe-Institut Glasgow

Open and free to all literature friends we discuss the novel 'The Inflatable Kaiser' by Michael Ziegelwagner.  Books are available to buy from the library beforehand.

A rainy day in Vienna, in the spring of 2011. Vera Beacher, whose nickname is Beachy, rings the wrong doorbell, mostly by accident. She enters the rooms of a secret society of monarchists. Conveniently for Vera, as it turns out. Because the "Legitimist Club" and its aim of putting the decrepit old Otto von Habsburg on the imperial throne are a distraction. From a catalogue of niggles currently plaguing her life. Or, seen another way, from her all encompassing existential crisis. There’s the annoying ankle injury, the tense atmosphere at the office, an impending hen night and the overly cool detachment of her lover, Robert. Vera develops a sincere liking for the group, their obstinacy and their static, ordered world view. And for the dashing young Herr Blawicz. She soon immerses herself in the circle; inspired by Vera’s presence its members moot more radical ways of re-establishing the old world order. Infused with a gentle irony and evoking a remarkable sense of literary depth, Michael Ziegelwagner’s debut tells of Vera’s struggles, her conversion to the monarchist cause and the understandable yet misplaced yearnings that we all have from time to time.

Michael Ziegelwagner was born in 1983. His career as a journalist has included work for the Austrian daily newspaper Der Standard; he currently holds a position at the satirical magazine Titanic. He was honoured with the Satire Prize by the Akademie Graz in 2002. His book Café Anschluss was published in 2011, in which he compares Germany and Austria. Ziegelwagner lives in Frankfurt and Vienna. 

Source: Rowohlt Verlag