Fabian. The Story of a Moralist
Thorsten Hierse, Božidar Kocevski, Birgit Unterweger
Berlin 1930. Life is influenced by the effects of the global economic crisis. In brothels and illegal bars, people try to numb themselves. But sequins, alcohol and sex can hardly cover up the increasing collapse of the system. On the eve of the National Socialist seizure of power, the capital city wavers between excess and death. Jakob Fabian – a 32-year-old literature professor and currently a copywriter in a cigarette factory – also tries to find his way through this confusion. He doesn’t expect much from life, let alone that he could somehow influence it. Quite unlike his friend Labude, who believes that circumstances can be changed through one’s own actions. "Making people decent and sensible," Fabian says, "could be a life goal." But it’s hopeless. Only once, for a brief moment, does the possibility of another life flash by. Fabian falls in love with Cornelia and, for the first time in a long while, he has something worth fighting for. But then he loses his job and an unstoppable, ultimately fatal nose-dive begins.
After his adaptations of Transit and Das Mädchen mit dem Fingerhut (Girl With Thimble), Alexander Riemenschneider now takes on Fabian, one of the greatest Berlin novels ever.