Meet Daniel Wisser - The Award-winning Austrian Author of SMART CITY

Daniel Wisser – Contemporary Austrian literature with wit and depth

Daniel Wisser, born in Klagenfurt in 1971, is one of the leading voices in contemporary Austrian literature. The Vienna-based writer pens novels, short stories, essays and song lyrics. His works combine linguistic originality and subtle humour with a keen insight into social developments, political circumstances and human relationships.

Wisser came to the attention of a wider audience, if not before, with his novel “Königin der Berge” for which he was awarded the Austrian Book Prize and the Johann Beer Prize in 2018. In 2024, he received the Vienna Book Prize and the City of Vienna’s Award for Literature. In his novel “0 1 2” (2023), he explores the contradictions of the present day. In “Smart City” (2025), he examines the vision of a digitised, supposedly perfect city.

Alongside his literary work, Wisser is a co-founder of the First Viennese Home Organ Orchestra, with which he has been musically active since 1994. During his reading tour, visitors will encounter an author who tackles social issues with narrative sophistication, a zest for linguistic experimentation and subtle humour.
 

The book:
Smart City – The Promise of a Perfect World

What will the city of the future look like if safety, cleanliness and sustainability are the top priorities? In his novel “Smart City”, published in 2025, the Austrian author Daniel Wisser envisions NEUDA, a digitalised model city that promises its residents a life free from crime, environmental pollution and social conflict.

Following the violent deaths of her husband and daughter, journalist Morag Oliphant moves to NEUDA to make a fresh start and report on this flagship project. Yet behind the immaculate façade, she increasingly uncovers contradictions: total surveillance, opaque power structures and a security apparatus controlled by a private corporation. When a fatal incident occurs during a demonstration, her investigations lead her ever deeper into a web of politics, economic interests and possible crimes.

With suspense, satirical wit and a sharp eye for social criticism, Wisser blends the crime novel with dystopia. “Smart City” poses fundamental questions about our present: Who owns the city? How much freedom are we prepared to give up in the name of security? And what remains of democracy when efficiency and control become more important than humanity and solidarity?