Missing Persons

Missing Persons by Hartmut Lange One of Germanys greatest
contemporary novelists and playwrights Langes first
appearance in English is a major event. The themes of
absence pervade all the works in this unsettling unusual
collection. In The Poster a German bank director strolling
though a park in Vienna adds his name to a list of missing
persons thereby writing himself out of his humdrum life.
Boarding a train to Venice his travels intersect with that
of a hooded stranger. The New Tenant mesmerizes the old
concierge with his mysterious comings and goings. And In
Defence of Nothingness the illness of a talented boy and
the lack of communication within a family ends in a
horrific climax. In all the stories the characters find
themselves at the mercy of events over which they have no
control and which are perhaps not quite real… Missing
Persons has been translated by Helen Atkins