F

It is the summer before the economic crisis. Martin Friedland, catholic priest without faith, overweight because always hungry, meets his half-brother Eric for dinner. The highly indebted financial advisor, who has one leg in prison, has uncanny visions, but never shares them with anyone. Shadowy men, even two children warn him of something, only: Do these warnings really apply to him, or does they refer to his twin brother Iwan, the art connoisseur and aesthete who looks just like him? The disaster is already taking its course. Daniel Kehlmann tells of three brothers, each in his own way, who are cheats, hypocrites and forgers. They have settled down in their lives, but suddenly an abyss gapes open. A moment of inattention, a coincidence, a wrong step, and what seemed to be a ghostly nightmare comes true.