Kracht, Christian
Entry updated 19 May 2025. Tagged: Author.
(1966- ) Swiss journalist and author, whose first novel, Faserland ["Land of Fibres"] (1995), combining gonzo picaresque with elements of autofiction, was widely celebrated. He is of sf interest for several varying tales. Metan (2007) with Ingo Niermann unpacks, in a manner evocative of the deadpan spoof/hoax pyrotechnics of Robert Shea's and Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus sequence, a "history" of Earth under the rule of invisible Aliens from ancient times (see Pariah Elite; Secret Masters). His second novel, Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten ["I'll Be Here in Sunshine and in Shadow"] (2008), is an Alternate History of the twentieth century whose Jonbar Point is the fact that 1917 Vladimir Lenin does not take the train to St Petersburg, founding a socialist state in Switzerland instead, which comes to dominate Europe; the Russian Revolution does not happen. The tale itself, set decades later, follows an African official in the Swiss Empire on a Fantastic Voyage in search of a criminal. A vision of the Alps transformed into a vast Underground redoubt is compelling. The protagonist of Imperium (2012; trans Daniel Bowles 2015), which is set in a surrealized German Empire insecurely fixed in time, travels upriver in New Caledonia, falling deeply into proleptic darkness (see Joseph Conrad) as he approaches his inexorably Imperialist goal: he plans to create a cash-crop plantation.
Air (2025), perhaps Equipoisally, weaves together two worlds: a more or less contemporary Norway, where the protagonist is commissioned to whiten utterly the walls containing a giant cloud storage facility; and a counterworld, created or found when the lights go out here. Mirroring transitions back and forth seem primarily to deepen some Arabian Nightmare [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], with alternate versions of Utopia clashing in the night. [JC]
Christian Kracht
born Saanen, Switzerland: 29 December 1966
works (selected)
- Metan (Berlin: Rogner and Bernhard, 2007) with Ingo Niermann [hb/]
- Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten ["I'll Be Here in Sunshine and in Shadow"] (Switzerland, 2008) [hb/]
- Imperium (Cologne, Germany:Kiepenheuer and Witsch, 2012) [hb/Dominik Monheim]
- Imperium (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015) [trans by Daniel Bowles of the above: hb/]
- Air (Cologne, Germany: Kiepenheuer and Witsch, 2025) [hb/]
links
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