Der Literarische Salon mit Thomas Hettche

Every few years, Thomas Hettche publishes a new, rather slender novel - and every few years, the book trade, critics and his large readership are delighted. "Rarely has a debut been received with such broad and deep admiration, indeed with such sighing relief, as if the future of a young German literature had been secured for the first time with this virtuously bold text," wrote DIE ZEIT about Ludwig muß sterben, and that was back in 1989. The reactions to every subsequent book up to his novel Sinkende Sterne, which appeared last year, sounded like this: "Rarely has anyone had a higher concept of literary art," exulted the SZ. The strange thing is: there is hardly a German-language author who seems so out of date, who doesn't care about fashions, who cultivates an almost ancient, elegant prose, who takes up motifs from the oldest literary history in his novels and who counters the emancipatory zeitgeist, if not with contempt, then with deep melancholy. Sinking Stars in particular can be understood as a farewell to the Occident. Is that conservative? Oh no, with Hettche the downfall becomes a necessity.