Peter Rosei

The threads of Peter Rosei’s new novel weave through Tokyo and Vienna, Chicago and Fiji, Utah and Cairo. In writing as precise as it is sophisticated, with a keen eye for the darker sides of human nature and the financial world, Rosei traces the rise and fall of Robert Perwald. At first, the brilliant economist seems to be a rising star, but when he moves to Tokyo to be with his Japanese wife Yoko, the first cracks begin to appear. Perwald loses his way, falling in with other people whose lives have somehow got off track, until finally he returns to Vienna, where he slips back into depending on his mother. Sharp-eyed and relentless, Rosei explores just how unpredictable life can sometimes be—and traces what ultimately leads Perwald to murder.

When it was first published in 1974, Peter Rosei’s extraordinary piece of travel writing was celebrated as a unique ‘mausoleum for humanity at the end of its history’ (DIE ZEIT). In the book, a kind of Kaspar Hauser figure sets off through a world without people, trying to learn more about it. Does this world only exist in his mind, or is it real? Rosei sketches out the topography of a landscape devoid of human beings, a world as meticulously detailed as a hallucination. We see it all through the eyes of one solitary wanderer: plains, mountains, snow and ice, always moving towards the next horizon. An audacious journey to the edges of perception, now released in a new edition—this is a rediscovery of disturbing contemporary relevance.

Together with H. C. Artmann Peter Rosei goes on numerous motorcycle tours starting from Salzburg. They just go with the flow, one time even until Venice. The novel “From here to there” is born out of this spirit of restlessness and desire for freedom. Published in 1978, it sketches the story of a young man, exploring Europe on a motorcycle. The atmosphere of the novel is characterized by a state of consciousness between reality and dream. Descriptions of a fleeting and intense moments of happiness are highlighted within this story in which constant movement is the leitmotif. The new edition reuses the emblematic cover design of Walter Pichler and allows a broad public to enjoy Peter Rosei’s novel which is often considered his best!

“Wonderful life” is not simply Peter Rosei’s autobiography. It is the attempt to achieve literary truthfulness and tell at the same time the story of a writer who has lived many lives. His motto could be: Life is wonderful, even if it is dreadful at some points. After a humble upbringing, the young man quickly makes good money as the private secretary of the painter Ernst Fuchs. However, he decides to leave everything behind, in order to follow his vocation as poet. Years of deep crises are followed by an adventurous bohemian life side by side with artists and writers of the seventies and eighties, among them his closest and long-standing friend H. C. Artmann. And then there is the big turning point – but read yourself: truth and poetry complement each other in this text.