Daniel Wisser, WE’RE GOING TO STAY
Luchterhand - Novel - Hardcover - March 2021 - 480 pages
A Family and Anti-Family Novel.
With captivatingly laconic wit, Daniel Wisser tells of four generations of a family through which the trenches of an entire country run. He paints the picture of a society that is beginning to realise that the dream of unstoppable progress is turning against them.
The world around Victor Jarno has changed - and as always, he noticed this too late. Victor is in his mid-forties, childless and the last social democrat in a Viennese family with socialist roots going back to the imperial era. But nobody seems to remember, even his mother and aunt have been affected by the political shift to the right.
With the return of Victor's cousin Karoline from abroad, a thirty-year-old secret love flares up again: Both despise e-scooters, stand-up paddling and the ruling right. But when they become a couple, the family threatens to break up because of the scandal.
On top of that, their grandmother bequeaths them her house in the countryside before her death, into which the cousins now move, much to the displeasure of their parents, who would have liked to inherit the house for themselves. But what can be saved in a world where their ideals are in decline and their family is falling apart?
"The humour comes from this contrast: a man who seems to have fallen out of time and then meets the modern world." - WDR 5
"Fine threads criss-cross and cross and back and forth between the private and the political in a narrative furore that never runs out of steam or ideas." - Ö1 Morgenjournal
“A family novel with a piquant love story, a study on the constitution of the SPÖ [the Austrian Social Democratic Party] and a satire on modern communication methods: Daniel Wisser's new novel is all of these in one and at the same time a light-footed and entertaining piece of Austrian history of mentality.” - orf.at
"The private is political, love a rebellion, family debatable. And all together of crucial importance. An Austrian novel in the best sense."- Münchner Merkur
“Daniel Wisser has not only written the chronicle of a family, but he also sensitively paints the picture of a country that has not only changed for the better. Absolutely recommended reading." - Österreich
“"We’re going to stay" is a family novel, the story of a love affair and an attempt to diagnose contemporary issues. Despite all this subject matter, Daniel Wisser maintains lightness, wit and drive in the novel. Perhaps this is due to the lusty exaggeration of his protagonist or the sensitively told love story.” - fm4
"Daniel Wisser's loosely narrated contradictions and his cool use of language make 'We’re going to stay' an impressive panorama of Austrian politics and local mentalities." - Die Presse
“If you are looking for explanations for current political developments, you will find them in this novel - this is literary contemporary history.” - Süddeutsche Zeitung
“It's refreshing to read, and you learn a lot about the country as well.” - Die Furche