Morally dispassionate, old-fashioned anachronistic, but always modern in language: How Martin Mosebach in “Taube und Wildente” ends the story of a country outing in the intensive care unit.
With “Cool”, his previous novel, the humorist Martin Mosebach had presented an extraordinarily powerful epic of doom, not for the first time. The novel has strong sides, and the almost omnipotent economic and spiritual leader Krass has strong necks and wills. From a lavish banquet in Naples to a graveyard city in Cairo, the broad trail of its decline leads. And a cleaning lady is a witness. As always, it is servants who remain in the attractive marriage of loyalty and lower class when all else goes down the drain.