Enchanted Destiny
German, Hanser, 2025
“In the beginning, the narrator says, Ludd had a certain fascination for the machines. In their presence he felt surprisingly powerful, creative and productive, but soon, considering the cloth he could produce on his five looms alone, he began to calculate.”
“And everywhere pools of water, flower beds and green lawns—so much effort to make you forget that you were in the desert; elaborate and pointless, because everywhere the wind blew the desert sand through the urban canyons and deposited it on the kerbs and fountains in small dunes. Perhaps one day they would take the plunge and put a large glass dome over the whole thing; that seemed to me to be the logical next step, at least in the logic of the undertaking.”
The human condition in late-stage capitalism: a book that will result in the reappraisal of an entire era
An Algerian soldier is trapped in the first German poison gas attack, decides that one side has to end the conflict, and leaves the battlefield. In a futuristic Cairo, a stand-up comedian sees an android laughing at her jokes. A weaver from Bohemia is replaced by an automated loom, steals a hammer and attacks the machine. What do people dream of in the era of capitalism? And do the machines we have created, which are increasingly rising against us, dream too? In the unique hall of mirrors created in this novel, these conflicts are ongoing and the stories are open-ended. Jonas Lüscher has written a cleverly absurd, astute book that delves into the present to seek answers about the future.
- Title
- Verzauberte Vorbestimmung
- Publisher
- Hanser
- Translation rights
- Friederike Barakat, friederike.barakat@hanser.de
- Publication date
- January 2025
- Pages
- 352
- ISBN
- 978-3-446-28304-6
- Awards
- Rheingau-Literaturpreis 2025
Author
Jonas Lüscher
Jonas Lüscher was born in 1976 in Switzerland and lives in Munich. His bestselling novel Frühling der Barbaren was longlisted for the German Book Prize and nominated for the Swiss Book Prize. Lüscher’s novel Kraft won the Swiss Book Prize. He is also a recipient of the Hans Fallada Prize, the Prix Franz Hessel and the Max Frisch Prize from the City of Zurich, among others. His books have been translated into over twenty languages.
Photo: © Peter-Andreas Hassiepen