The sweet indifference of the world
(Book)

"Originally published in German as Die sanfte Gleichgültigkeit der Welt in 2018 by S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main."

"In this alluring, melancholic novel--Peter Stamm at his best--a writer haunted by his double blurs the line between past and present, fiction and reality, in his attempt to outrun the unknown. Lena is a young actress in Stockholm. Christoph writes her a message. He wants to meet her. He just indicates where and when and that he wants to tell her a story. She must have wondered about such a note. They meet, go for a walk and he tells her that he wrote a book, just the one. Lena says her boyfriend is also a writer, writing his first novel. He knows, he says: 'That's why I want to tell you my story.' This story changed Christoph's life and will call into question everything that Lena has taken for granted until now. Twenty years ago, Christoph loved a woman who resembled Lena, who is in fact just the same. He knows about the life she leads, knows what still lies ahead of her. And so begins a uniquely existential game of past and present that will leave no one unharmed. In the terse and precise language that is his hallmark, Peter Stamm explores a fundamental question: Can we escape our destiny, or must we come to terms with the sweet indifference of the world?"--,Provided by publisher.