READING AND DISCUSSION WITH SEPP MALL

‘Sepp Mall has succeeded in writing a poignant, immensely powerful and at the same time tender novel about a dark chapter in contemporary history, without ever resorting to clumsy sentimentality.’ Joachim Leitner, Tiroler Tageszeitung

In 1942, a family from South Tyrol decides to emigrate to the German Reich as part of the ‘Option’ programme. Eleven-year-old Ludi recounts the last days in the village and the first stop in the German Reich: Innsbruck. On the instructions of doctors, his disabled brother Hanno must be taken to an institution near Hall. The rest of the family moves on to Upper Austria. The father is drafted into the Wehrmacht and Hanno also does not return. A letter from a ‘sanatorium and nursing home’ in the Reich is all that remains of him for the family.

A moving novel that explores a child's grief for his brother in vivid, poetic language.

Katrin Klotz will be talking to the author.

Sepp Mall, born in Graun/South Tyrol in 1955, studied in Innsbruck and lives as a writer in Merano. He has received various awards and scholarships, including the Merano Poetry Prize, a state scholarship from the Austrian Federal Ministry and a major literature scholarship from the Province of Tyrol. His most recent publications are the novel ‘Hoch über allem’ (Haymon 2017) and the poetry collection ‘Holz und Haut’ (Haymon 2020).

A joint event organised by the Dr Friedrich Teßmann Provincial Library and the South Tyrolean Artists' Association.