Birgit Birnbacher – She wants to tell us

When Oz gets home, Ann—who’s also a bundle of nerves—isn’t in a celebratory mood over his report card, as he’d expected; something has actually happened. Grandma Zilly, who lives in the mountains, is gone…
Oz is different and struggles in school, but this time something really bad has happened to him. On his way home, he therefore wishes for at least a minor disaster that would distract his mother from the letter from his teacher that he has to give her. When Oz comes home, Ann—who also has a frayed nerve—is not, as expected, in a celebratory mood over report cards, but something has actually happened. Zilly Grandma, who lives in the mountains, is gone… “Subtle yet crystal-clear, translucent and nuanced” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), Birgit Birnbacher’s new novel once again explores the human condition—and the opportunities that unbridled imagination opens up. Do those who cannot conform perhaps actually have something to offer in the face of our overstimulated nature and environment?

Birgit Birnbacher, born in 1985, lives in Salzburg and grew up in Goldegg. She received the Rauriser Literature Prize for her debut novel *Wir ohne Wal* and the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in 2019. *Wovon wir leben* is Birnbacher’s third novel.