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Sebastian Zollner, an underachieving art critic, has pinned his hopes of advancement on writing the biography of the artist Manuel Kaminski, a forgotten former pupil of Matisse, now an ailing recluse. Inept, charmless, and with scant knowledge of art history, Zollner is hardly the man to rediscover a lost genius of 20th-century painting. But he has made one crucial discovery about his subject: that Kaminski's long-lost love, Therese, is still living, contrary to what the artist himself has been led to believe.
On his arrival at Kaminski's isolated Alpine home, Zollner imposes himself crudely on the household, alienating the artist's protective daughter, Miriam. His efforts to unlock the secrets of Kaminski's life lead him to embark on a series of increasingly desperate measures. Having bribed the housekeeper to absent herself, he ransacks the house in search of revealing documents (he finds little of interest), then dismisses the frail Kaminski's doctor, and spirits the old man away in his daughter's Mercedes for a grand reunion with his old flame.
From here on events spiral rapidly out of control. Pursued by Kaminski's irate daughter, Zollner and Kaminski take to the road one last time, as the novel draws to its unexpectedly redemptive conclusion. Part road novel and part satire, Me and Kaminski provides further compelling evidence of the exceptional talents of one of Europe's most exciting and gifted young novelists.
About the author
Daniel Kehlmann, wurde 1975 als Sohn des Regisseurs Michael Kehlmann und der Schauspielerin Dagmar Mettler in München geboren. 1981 kam er mit seiner Familie nach Wien, wo er das Kollegium Kalksburg, eine Jesuitenschule, besuchte und danach an der Universität Wien Philosophie und Germanistik studierte. Er hatte Poetikdozenturen in Mainz, Wiesbaden und Göttingen inne und wurde mit zahlreichen Preisen, darunter dem Candide-Preis, dem Preis der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, dem Doderer-Preis, dem Kleist-Preis 2006, dem WELT-Literaturpreis 2007 sowie zuletzt mit dem Thomas-Mann-Preis ausgezeichnet. Daniel Kehlmann lebt als freier Schriftsteller in Wien und Berlin.
