Don't Forget Anna

After a string of defeats, Lukas bids farewell to Berlin and, in keeping with his track record, spends the last night before his return to Vienna on the spare sofa of a bone- weary waitress. In the morning it is impossible to wake her. But when the plumber calls, the young man suddenly has a listener to whom he can tell a different life story. Of the life he dreamed of, and a great and happy love.

Arno Geiger's new short stories dazzle with the lightness and versatility of his language as, empathetically and determinedly, the author cleaves to his main topic: the fruitless search for happiness. With sparkling style and high humour, he writes of Herr Gabriel, who has been auctioning lost suitcases for years and now hopes to find life stories inside them. He tells us of Ella who tries to seduce the husbands of wary wives, and of two people meeting on the intensive ward while doctors fight for a young boy's life…