STOPOVER AUSTRIA. HALF A YEAR ON THE BORDER

STOPOVER AUSTRIA. HALF A YEAR ON THE BORDER
Vladimir Vertlib - Reading and discussion with Hanno Loewy

Vladimir Vertlib was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1966. In 1971 he emigrated with his family to Israel, in 1972 the family moved to Austria, soon afterwards to Italy, back to Austria, in 1975 to the Netherlands, a short time later to Israel again, in 1976 - after a stopover in Rome - back to Vienna, in 1980 to the USA and finally, in 1981, after a brief detention and deportation, finally to Austria. Vertlib has been an Austrian citizen since 1986. He has published in a number of media (including PRESSE, Wiener Zeitung and FAZ) and has won numerous literary prizes. Vertlib's novels, starting with his first work Abschiebung, as well as his stories and essays, have been translated into many languages.

Hanno Loewy, born in Frankfurt/Main in 1961, literary and media scholar, publicist and director of the Jewish Museum Hohenems, where the exhibition Sag Schibbolet! Of Visible and Invisible Borders was on display until March 2019.

When Austria had to deal with its „refugee crisis“ in 2015, thousands and thousands of people were waved through Austria to Germany - under sometimes grotesque and often traumatic conditions for those affected. The writer Vladimir Vertlib, himself a refugee who finally landed in Salzburg after many stopovers, found himself in the middle of this refugee movement, which triggered memories and contradictory emotions. For months, he served as a volunteer in the improvised „Asfinag camp“ on the border between Europe and Europe, along the Salzach river.
In his latest novel Viktor hilft, Vladimir Vertlib not only tells of everyday life on the border, but also of the tricks that one's own biography can play on you and of his protagonist's surprising encounters with right-wing extremist „defenders“ of identity.