After a year in Afghanistan, Karl returns to Europe and washes up at the Hotel Beau Rivage in Geneva, where he is to report to the International Red Cross. But the former would-be world-improver feels like a stranger in his own life: his family has become estranged from him, and moral certainties too begin to falter. In the tension between humanitarian aspiration and personal crisis, the novel asks how – and whether – good can be brought into the world. Lydia Mischkulnig writes of quiet moments of upheaval and of the fragility of human action. A haunting novel about responsibility, doubt and the search for direction.

Lydia Mischkulnig, born in Klagenfurt in 1963, lives and works in Vienna. She has received numerous awards, including the Veza Canetti Prize and the Johann Beer Literature Prize, as well as the Carinthian State Award for Literature. Her most recent publications are the short story collection »Die Gemochten« (Leykam 2022) and the novel “Beau Rivage: Eine Rückkehr”, both of which appeared on the ORF bestenliste.

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Photo: photo rights © Minitta Kandlbauer, Leycam