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"I looked into its filmy eyes inquisitively and saw it was the body's fear, not mine, not the soul's, and so it was fear ofdeath. I realised I could distinguish between my inner self and my physical body. An ice-cold surface covered my innerheat." Péter NádasIn this short story a man relates his innermost thoughts as he suffers a heart attack on the street and is then broughtback to life after three and a half minutes. It is a compelling tale of something appalling and completely ordinary, of painand fear and acceptance, while walking the thin line between life and death. In contrast to the speed of this near-deathexperience, Own Death includes a series of photos in which the passage of time is hardly apparent. Over the courseof a year the author photographed a wild pear tree in his garden at different times of the day, recording its changes undera range of light conditions. Own Death contrasts perceptions of the here and now with the hereafter, and its complexcomposition alludes to the passage of mortal time.Péter Nádas, born in Budapest, Hungary in 1942, worked as a press photographer before becoming a writer. His firstbook of stories was published in 1967 and his bestselling novel, A Book of Memories, was published in 1986. Nádasis among the most important authors of our time and has received numerous prizes including the Austrian State Prizefor European Literature, the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding, and the Kossuth Prize. Steidl publishedNádas' Etwas Licht in 1991.
About the author
Péter Nádas, geb. 1942 in Budapest, ist einer der bedeutendsten europäischen Erzähler. Er wurde u.a. mit dem Österreichischen Staatspreis für Europäische Literatur, dem französischen Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger und dem Leipziger Bucpreis zur Europäischen Verständigung ausgezeichnet. Péter Nádas lebt in Budapest und Gombosszeg.
Hans Werner Holzwarth ist Buchdesigner und Herausgeber in Berlin, zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen vor allem im Bereich der zeitgenössischen Kunst und Fotografie.
