Austrian writer in Chisinau: meeting on literature’s power to explore reality

Austrian writer Thomas Glavinic has met readers of Moldova during a dialogue about literature, personal experiences and the boundary between reality and fiction. The event took place at the National Library, as part of the European Authors’ Day initiative, held under the slogan, Read. For Real!

The dialogue with the audience began with his novel, The Jonas Complex, and touched on such themes as the boundary between autobiography and fiction, memory, identity and the way literature can convey realities that are difficult to understand.

In a dialogue moderated by poet, translator and researcher Ivan Pilchin, the author said that the characters in the novel were united by their search for something that can offer them fulfillment and a sense of home, even though each discovers it in a different way.

“I believe that, for all protagonists, it is about finding something that fulfills them and something within that fulfillment in which they can feel at home. One character, for example, is constantly traveling, searching for atmosphere and people, and finds these moments of home through the people she meets and through the journeys that fulfill her. The 13-year-old adolescent is, in fact, in Austria and what fulfills him and makes him feel at home is chess. The author, the writer who is addicted, is also looking for an anchor. It is a search between different ways,” Thomas Glavinic said.

The writer also spoke about the autobiographical nature of the novel, noting that, over time, the boundary between personal experiences and invented ones becomes difficult to identify even for the author.

“This book is not an autobiography. It could be one, perhaps it was, but I have forgotten. I no longer understand which scenes I experienced and which ones I invented. I no longer understand what really happened among the things I recounted in the novel and, in the end, I am not interested. Because if we listen to the opinions of four people who went through the same experience, we will hear four different experiences. Moreover, I no longer know what happened yesterday; I no longer know what happened a week ago,” the author explained.

Glavinic described autofiction as a writer’s game with their own memories and perceptions, emphasizing that reality cannot always be reconstructed accurately.

“Autofiction is a game. It is a game in which the author plays. [...] First we do something, then our consciousness interprets it and, somehow, all our actions come from a deep place within us. We believe that we are subjective, but in fact everything is very relative. If we cannot understand ourselves, how can we expect to understand others? Everyone is responsible for knowing themselves,” the writer noted.

The writer also spoke about the challenge of translating abstract concepts, such as time and existence into literature, noting that an author must create logical connections that enable readers to understand even phenomena that are difficult to explain.

“Time is something abstract. We know that everything has a beginning and an end. There were people before us and there will be people after us. But what does this mean for us in terms of objective time? We do not know. An author must explain certain aspects, themes, and subjects. They must be able to create images for readers of certain phenomena, even if these are not understood by the author as such, but they must create logical threads for the reader’s understanding,” the author said.

For her part, Elina Bolgarina, a representative of the National Library of Moldova, highlighted the importance of cooperation with the Embassy of Austria and of international projects that contribute to promoting European literature in Moldova. She emphasized that the writer’s visit gives local audiences the opportunity to meet him and interact with him directly.

“We are delighted by the visit to Chisinau of an important author of contemporary Austrian literature, who is here thanks to the ‘European Authors’ Day’ project, supported by Creative Europe, as well as to the seven organizations from Austria that contributed to bringing our author, Thomas Glavinic, to Chișinău to promote his work and to allow the public of Moldova to meet him, discover his work, and interact with him,” Elina Bolgarina said.

Thomas Glavinic was born in 1972 in Graz, Austria, and is one of the leading representatives of contemporary German-language literature. He made his debut in 1998 with the novel, Carl Haffner’s Love of the Draw, while his best-known books include The Video Killer, Night Work, and The Life of Desires. His work explores such subjects as loneliness, fear, identity and human fragility, combining psychological thriller, dystopia and autofiction. The novel, The Jonas Complex (Der Jonas-Komplex) was translated into Romanian by Victor Scoradeț and published in 2023 by Cartier Publishing House.

The event was organized as part of the European Authors’ Day initiative, supported through the European Union’s Creative Europe programme. The National Library of Moldova is joining this initiative for the second consecutive year, promoting reading and European cultural dialogue.