The 3 best books by Daniel Glattauer

I will always remember that with Daniel Glattauer I broke the unspoken rule of inexcusably returning a borrowed book. Although in this case it was by force majeure. The truth is that I no longer remember how the book ended in the pool ...

The point is that I finished what was left as best I could between the wrinkled and half-glued sheets, I invited its owner to have a drink for the damage caused (he did not want me to buy a new one), and that's how it turned out.

Anecdotes aside, the Glattauer phenomenon was very popular a good handful of years ago. In the midst of chats, networks and emails, this Austrian writer knew how to reconvert the epistolary genre to its proper adaptation to the times that were beginning to take off.

But after his most recognized novels in this field, new stories arrived that without having the pull of «Against the north wind» and «Every seven waves» they continued probing into that of love and heartbreak with their touches of existentialism, like a good romantic brought to our days to recover the splendor of the romantic in its most transcendental essence.

Top 3 Recommended Novels by Daniel Glattauer

Against the North wind

Love as an argument can also offer a growing cadence of tension, perhaps the most intense if it is seasoned with its touch of sexual drive, with a bit of existential concerns, sprinkled with sensations of the forbidden and topped off with the idea of ​​the forbidden.

That was what this novel was about, which conquered so many readers in its atypical epistolary nature that, however, connected with the new world of remote but fluid communications with anyone in the world. In reality, meeting places on the Internet became very fruitful a few years ago based on the typical idealization or emotional attunement on either side of each keyboard. Then the thing worked or it didn't, but in the meantime you enjoyed that strange sensation of a love without a face, without a nearby aroma, without gestures...

A love story through the internet. Against the North wind is the clever and brilliant romance novel that made Daniel Glattauer known and became a bestseller thanks to word of mouth. In everyday life, is there a safer place for secret desires than the world of the internet?

Leo Leike receives emails by mistake from a stranger named Emmi. Since he is polite, she answers him and since he attracts her, she writes again. Thus, little by little, a dialogue is established in which there is no turning back. It seems only a matter of time before they meet in person, but the idea upsets them so deeply that they prefer to postpone the meeting. Would the emotions sent, received, and stored survive a “real” encounter?

Against the North wind

Every seven waves

Clandestine love continues its course. If second parts are always risky (unless pre-planned like this), this case seemed like the complete risk without a network. Because dwelling on the hidden love of Emmi and Leo seemed to point to a perhaps unnecessary extension.

But therein lies the writer's grace, in knowing how to exploit the anguishing sensation of the encounter between the protagonists as a basis to return with this assault to which we all cling to in order to glimpse the end that each of us expected. Promiscuity, ability to love above monogamy. You can look at it however you want, but looking at this budding infidelity seems to be justified in that the relationship woven online seems much more real than many aspects of their lives.

And, from our focus, as privileged as it is aseptic, by which we observe the letters as if we were entering their houses to lose ourselves in their drawers, we can be more clear if they deserve the opportunity to meet. Either because we believe that they must destroy their entire previous life, to appease sexual tension or to see if, just by having a coffee, they can close any pending matter.

A gift that you did not expect

Lowering the level of the two previous novels quite a bit, Glattauer offered in this novel his already typical magical flashes, shines of a tightrope love that we see high up, many meters from the hard ground where life passes.

Gerold Plassek leads an easy life based on three principles: tire as little as possible, stay in the shade and hunker down after a comfortable routine. He works in a free newspaper, where he deals, without great ambition, with the local chronicles. The rest of the time he spends in Zoltan, the bar below his house, which has become an extension of his own living room.

When an old girlfriend reappears to ask him to take care of Manuel, her fourteen-year-old son, of whom he also confesses that he is the father, Gerold sees his placid life in danger. The teenager then begins to spend the afternoons in Gerold's office, who pretends to do something important.

But everything changes when, after the publication of an article about a homeless shelter, it receives an anonymous donation, the first of a series of mysterious good deeds that put the protagonist in the spotlight. Manuel begins to discover an interesting man in his father. But several questions await an answer: who is the mysterious donor? And what does it have to do with Gerold?

A gift that you did not expect
5/5 - (13 votes)

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