 First edition cover | |
| Author | Christian Kracht |
|---|---|
| Language | German |
| Publisher | Kiepenheuer & Witsch |
Publication date | 24 September 2001 |
| Publication place | Switzerland |
| Pages | 192 |
| ISBN | 978-3-462-03024-2 |
1979 is a 2001 novel by the Swiss writer Christian Kracht. It is set in 1979 and tells the story of an aloof homosexual who gets caught up in political turmoil in Iran and China.
The protagonist is a homosexual young man who travels to Tehran with his ex-boyfriend Christopher. It is the time of the Iranian Revolution, and as Christopher dies during a drug binge, the full revolution breaks out. The protagonist is convinced to travel to Tibet to climb the sacred Mount Kailash, only to be captured by the Chinese army. He spends time in an internment camp where he is indoctrinated and goes along with the survival techniques the prisoners develop. Throughout the story, the man is largely unaffected by the events around him and pays more attention to art, music, food and furnishings.
The book was published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch on 24 September 2001. The original German cover was designed by Peter Saville, known for his record sleeves for artists associated with Factory Records.
The novel has been translated into Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, French, Hebrew, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
Elke Heidenreich of Der Spiegel wrote: "It is a laconic novel about the lack of sense, of global ideas, it is the likewise laconic statement that you can do anything to a man, even subdue him to inhuman totalitarianism, because he has no capability for resistance whatsoever." The critic continued: "1979 is a novel about decadence — the decadence of western consumption and eastern doctrines of salvation, the decadence of prison camps and the decadence of drug parties, 'and suddenly, at once, I saw myself in my full disgracefulness'." [1]
A stage version of the novel directed by Matthias Hartmann premiered in 2004 and was performed in theatres in Zurich, Bochum, Hannover and Vienna. [2]
Reinhard Friedrich Michael Mey is a German Liedermacher. In France he is known as Frédérik Mey.
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Max Rudolf Frisch was a Swiss playwright and novelist. Frisch's works focused on problems of identity, individuality, responsibility, morality, and political commitment. The use of irony is a significant feature of his post-war output. Frisch was one of the founders of Gruppe Olten. He was awarded the 1965 Jerusalem Prize, the 1973 Grand Schiller Prize, and the 1986 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
Martin Johannes Walser was a German writer, known especially as a novelist. He began his career as journalist for Süddeutscher Rundfunk, where he wrote and directed audio plays. He was a member of Group 47 from 1953 on.
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Sibylle Berg is a German-Swiss contemporary author and playwright. They write novels, essays, short fiction, plays, radio plays, and columns. And they are as of 2024 a member of the European Parliament. Their 18 books have been translated into 30 languages. They have won numerous awards, including the Thüringer Literaturpreis, the Bertolt-Brecht-Literaturpreis, and the Johann-Peter-Hebel-Preis. They have become an iconic figure in German alternative sub-cultures, gaining a large fan base among the LGBT community and the European artistic communities. They live in Switzerland and Israel. Their 2019 work GRM. Brainfuck, a science fiction novel set in a dystopian near future won the Swiss Book Prize and was noticed by The Washington Post, and reached fourth place on the Spiegel Bestseller list, with the sequel, RCE, entering the list as highest entry of the week at place 14. On 1 March 2023 Berg was invited as special guest to open the high-profile Elevate Festival in Graz.
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Ireen Sheer is a German-English singer. She had her first major hit in 1970 with Hey Pleasure Man. She had a top five hit on the German singles chart with "Goodbye Mama" in 1973. She went on to finish fourth at the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 representing Luxembourg, sixth at the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 representing Germany, and thirteenth at the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 representing Luxembourg again.
Christian Kracht is a Swiss author. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages.
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Alte Liebe is a novel in German written jointly by Elke Heidenreich and Bernd Schroeder. It is the story of a couple married in the 1960s, during the German student movement, and together for 40 years, but experiencing differences along the way. It is regarded as a semi-autobiography by two authors who married in 1972 and separated later, but kept up their literary collaboration. Wife and husband tell the story in alternating chapters, each an inner monologue followed by dialogue. The book was published by Carl Hanser Verlag in 2009. The authors narrated an audio edition that appeared the same year.
Es ist ein lakonischer Roman über den Mangel an Sinn, an weltumspannenden Ideen, es ist die ebenso lakonische Feststellung, dass man mit dem Menschen alles machen kann, ihn sogar unmenschlichem Totalitarismus unterwerfen, weil er geistig zu einem Widerstand überhaupt nicht in der Lage ist." "1979 ist ein Roman über Dekadenz - die Dekadenz westlichen Konsums und östlicher Heilslehren, die Dekadenz der Lager und die Dekadenz der Drogenpartys, 'und plötzlich, auf einmal, sah ich auch mich in meiner ganzen widerlichen Erbärmlichkeit'.
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