Albert Ostermaier

Marcel is a consultant, a frequent flyer, a high performer. His numerous business trips have taken him around the world several times, from airport to airport, always on the go, an existence in a hurry, barely arrived and already on the road again. Until he suddenly finds himself stuck in quarantine in Wuhan. Because a virus is on its way, with similar efficiency as Marcel and just as transformable. Like in a fever dream Marcel jumps through time and space. Flashes of memories of a childhood full of humiliations alternate with descriptions of sinister places of exploitation of humans and animals. Slaughterhouses, exotic markets - everywhere the virus has been, Marcel has also been on his journey. Or is it an escape? Because who is Marcel, really? Is he Patient Zero, who travels as a superspreader on behalf of the virus somewhere between megalomania and greed, lust for revenge and endless forlornness? A dystopian optimizer on his apocalyptic ride across the global financial markets?
Albert Ostermaier lets his restless protagonist race through a brilliant text with an insane love of language. At the end of each sentence, a new thought ignites, one fantastic chain of associations infects the next: an intoxicating monologue full of highly infectious energy.