Norbert Gstrein

“A milestone in anti-war literature”
(Jan Drees)

Thefirst light tells the story of Adrian’s life, whose fate is shaped by the upheavals and upheavals of the 20th century. An event that has a profound impact in the truest sense of the word determines his future life: his own father makes him physically unfit for the First World War by hitting him in the leg with an axe – an extremely ambivalent act between protection and violence.
In the future, however, Adrian sought to be close to war invalids who were less “lucky” than him – and thus became a chronicler of their tragedy. Over the course of more than eighty years, the novel accompanies Adrian through personal crises and historical catastrophes and links individual experiences with major questions about memory, responsibility and moral entanglement.

The Tyrolean Norbert Gstrein is one of the most important contemporary Austrian authors. In his multiple award-winning novels (including the Austrian Book Prize and the Thomas Mann Prize), he deals with history, identity and moral conflicts.