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Zusatztext “A sly novel. . . . Figuring out what is fiction and what is reality is half the fun of this book.” – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "I'm honestly not sure whether I was so happily hypnotized by a movie . . . and a book because of the spellbinding film it unspooled in my mind or because of the way it held me enrapt as a novel. But I do know that I was absolutely mesmerized by it from the start to finish." –Chris Bohjalian! author of Midwives and The Buffalo Soldier "A must-read for fans of Memento and Adaptation ." –Eric Garcia! author of Matchstick Men Informationen zum Autor Daniel Wagner lives in Basel, Switzerland. A movie...and a book is his first novel. Klappentext "Life is a game: it's a movie and it's a book. It's not always easy! but there is always a way. You just have to look at it the right way.”In this stunning debut! Daniel Wagner delivers a soulful examination of the forces that both drive us and oppose us. Jim Frazier is a writer with very little to show for it. He worries that the only way to achieve success is to lower the bar! sell out! and pander to commercialism. Meanwhile! somewhere far away! a woman named Liz and a man named Lou are stranded on a desert island. While they are faced with an obviously serious problem! the two have some more important issues to discuss. As these two seemingly separate stories converge! Wagner presents a meditation on the worlds we inhabit that will resonate long after the credits roll and the last page has been turned. Leseprobe the movie We see a big empty room. Of course, it's not a room the way we know them, with length, width, height, and all. It's just a room projected on a screen. In a way, it's a dirty trick. We aren't used to empty rooms. Yet an empty room is understood in one glimpse. So after the short time it takes your brain to realize, It's an empty room, you start to wonder, What for? Is it possible that the whole thing blows up all of a sudden? Or is it a lousy movie and they simply couldn't afford more? And while thinking about it, while thinking about these kinds of things, the movie makers have you already glued to your seat. I guess they teach this stuff in art school nowadays. As expected, the big empty room is still on the screen...and some whispering is already spreading through the theater--What a setup. In a way, you can't blame the movie makers, though. It's us. It's our messed-up attention span. If you just start telling a nice story, right from the beginning no one is interested. Me neither, naturally. Sometimes I sit in front of the TV thinking about-- Hold on, an old guy enters the picture, holding a chair in his hands. He places the chair in the middle of the room and takes a seat. Basically he looks like a typical old man. He wears a baseball cap and old-fashioned glasses, and there is some excess skin around his mouth. That's another trick. Just use a guy who looks a little funny--with too much skin around his mouth, for example--and the viewer, again, starts to think about it. Probably only half consciously you start to wonder if he had this excess skin even as a child. Then you try to picture him as a child. It doesn't make much sense, so your brain starts to look for other solutions. It could be a side effect of arguing with his wife, some might speculate. Others may even start to worry a little and wonder if gravity can do this over time. That's how the brain works--and don't think the movie makers don't know it! They use your curiosity, they make you wonder, that's all they do; and while you're thinking about those things, you already start to relate to the characters. That's the whole trick. I didn't even notice it. He's holding a book in his hands. He gives it a little shake. He gives it a...
