My dear Masahlena, I’m not allowed to use the word Otchanganarriva so much anymore. Otchanganarriva. Otchanganarriva. Otchanganarriva. Otchanganarriva. Now I feel better. We have to act as if we are very close to one another within a family, Masahlena. Are you on something. Your pupils are as big as oversized pupils. You’re freezing. Or is that me. I can’t tie you down in bed right now. Masahlena. Masahlena. Masahlena. Masahlena. Masahlena. If these...
My dear Masahlena, I’m not allowed to use the word Otchanganarriva so much anymore. Otchanganarriva. Otchanganarriva. Otchanganarriva. Otchanganarriva. Now I feel better. We have to act as if we are very close to one another within a family, Masahlena. Are you on something. Your pupils are as big as oversized pupils. You’re freezing. Or is that me. I can’t tie you down in bed right now. Masahlena. Masahlena. Masahlena. Masahlena. Masahlena. If these repetitions are too much for anyone, may they speak now or forever hold their peace. Do we have something other than wine in the house, Masahlena.«
A snippet from a letter from an unknown writer. All that we know about him is that he is the hero in Thomas Kunst’s new novel Masleboi. He lives in Otchanganarriva. He spends his time retreating ever further from humanity. He collects jars. He lives with the jars. He takes the labels for the jam and uses them as material with which he constructs his furnishings. Bed. Table. Letterbox. Flowerpot. And Masahlena? Not a lot is known about her either. Just that she defies all expectations and conventions. As does Thomas Kunst’s wild, form-defying, opulent prose.
Persons
Thomas Kunst
Thomas Kunst, born in 1965, works as a library assistant at the German National Library. He has received numerous awards for his prose and poetry, amongst them the Meran Poetry Prize 2014. In 2018, he was awarded the Lower Austria Prize for Literature for an excerpt from Zandschow. The novel was also shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2021.
Thomas Kunst, born in 1965, works as a library assistant at the German National Library. He has received numerous awards for his prose and poetry,...
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
WÜ
Zandschow
Bengt Claasen is sitting in his car, all his earthly possessions in the boot. In front of him, on the dashboard, sits the collar that belonged to his deceased dog. Wherever it falls down, he is going to stop and start a new life. He drives as slowly and carefully as he can and eventually, he reaches Zandschow – a tiny village in the far north with a fire-fighting pond as its...
Colonies And Cufflinks
Thomas Kunst’s new poems are like a foray through a Luna park: Arab horsemen gather in the DIY superstore, the battle of Tours and Poitiers rages between carports and garden furniture covers in the year 732, and we encounter a Viking on 54th street in New York.
The subject of movement and flight are tangible in almost every poem. Although current topics such as...