Small World (novel)
Small World is Martin Suter's first novel and was published by Diogenes Verlag in 1997 . The book is the first part of his “neurological trilogy”, followed by The Dark Side of the Moon and A Perfect Friend .
action
Konrad Lang, an elderly man, is supposed to maintain and manage a holiday villa belonging to the very wealthy Swiss industrialist family Koch on the Greek island of Corfu. He received this assignment as a favor because he is an old family friend. He spent almost his entire childhood and youth with Thomas Koch, the son of Elvira Senn, the eighty-year-old CEO.
The Kochs' villa is not equipped for winter. Although Konrad is only allowed to live in the porter's house, he spends cold evenings and nights in the guest wing of the villa. Here he accidentally ignites a supply of wood with gasoline, which causes a fire that destroys the entire building complex. Konrad's negligence is initially attributed to alcohol abuse. He is brought back to Switzerland by Thomas Koch.
Despite this incident, Konrad continues to be protected by Elvira Senn to a lesser extent. She provides him with a furnished apartment and pays his running costs and monthly pocket money. In a bar Konrad meets a woman, Rosemarie Haug. They both fall in love and they are soon to get married. Konrad also stops drinking because of her, but it turns out that Konrad suffers from progressive dementia . This makes marriage impossible because he forgets names, gets lost shopping or cannot find his way home. Finally, he also forgets his relationship with Rosemary. This has him on the advice of the neurologist Dr. Wirth, who is an acquaintance of her husband, who died years ago, was sent to a nursing home.
The more forgetful Konrad becomes in his present life, the better he remembers his previous life. The memories of old times open to him like a book, and every day Konrad turns back a page, deeper and deeper into his past. He remembers the smallest details of his childhood with Thomas Koch, with whom the contact has since broken off because Konrad had for the first time opposed Thomas' order to accompany him abroad again.
An incident occurs in the nursing home. Konrad Lang throws himself out of the third level of the building, but can be caught by the fire brigade with a jumping mat. Simone Koch, Thomas' daughter-in-law, then, with the consent of Elvira Senn, decides to accommodate the dementia patient in the guest house of the Kochs home villa. With the help of Dr. Wirths, the guest house has been converted into a kind of "private clinic" for Konrad Lang. Dedicated nursing staff look after him around the clock and his bedroom is under video surveillance.
The course of Konrad's illness is subject to fluctuations. There are days when he appears to be making progress, followed by others with setbacks. Simone Koch spends a lot of time with Konrad. In “photo sessions” she shows him photos and Konrad is asked to tell the story about them. The photos come from Konrad and Thomas' childhood. Elvira Senn keeps them under lock and key. But Simone secretly copied them. First of all, “Koni”, as Konrad Lang calls himself, can remember the stories about the photos down to the smallest detail. Soon, however, he can no longer make a real reference to the pictures. Apparently he confuses the names of the two in pictures on which he and Thomas are shown, as if he himself no longer knows who he is.
Elvira Senn is keeping the photos under lock and key to keep a terrible secret. Konrad Lang is Thomas Koch and Thomas Koch is actually Konrad Lang. Konrad Lang is the biological son of Wilhelm Koch from his first marriage and thus Elvira Senn's stepson. Thomas Koch, for his part, is Elvira Senn's biological son, the product of a rape of the young Elvira by one of her father's colleagues. At that time Elvira killed her husband Wilhelm Koch and his son, Konrad, grew up with her sister Anna. Thomas Koch, however, was smuggled into the cooking family. From then on he was passed off as the son of Wilhelm and thus undeservedly enjoyed the wealth of the chefs.
Elvira Senn finds out about the photo sessions by chance and fears that her secret will come to light. When Konrad made progress again with the new active ingredient "Pom55", which was still in the test phase, Elvira decided to kill Konrad. Konrad is very tired and is already in bed when Elvira Senn asks the nursing staff to enter the guest house. When she was alone with him, she added insulin to the Pom55 infusion so that Konrad would die of hypoglycaemia. A few hours later, the nursing staff noticed that something was wrong with Konrad and saved his life by giving him sweets.
Video recordings that were routinely made to monitor the patient show Elvira Senn's attempted murder. However, she died in a car accident a few days later. A few years later, Konrad's therapy with the now approved drug was successfully completed. His language center is intact again, his senile dementia almost stopped, and he can lead a more or less independent life again.
Family / figure constellation
| role | Surname |
|---|---|
| Protagonist and son of Wilhelm Koch | Konrad Lang |
| Head of the Koch Works | Elvira Senn |
| Son of Elvira Senn and stepson of Wilhelm Koch | Thomas Koch |
| Son of Thomas Koch | Urs Koch |
| Urs Koch's wife | Simone Koch |
| Friend of Konrad Lang | Rosemarie Haug |
| Takes care of Konrad Lang | Sister Ranjah & Simone Koch |
| Sister of Elvira | Anna Lang |
| Performs test with "Pom55" | Dr. Kundert |
Movie
- → See main article Small World (film)
Small World was filmed by Bruno Chiche with Gérard Depardieu and Alexandra Maria Lara in the leading roles and had its world premiere on December 1, 2010 on the occasion of the opening of the 10th French Film Week in Berlin. The film was shown in German cinemas from December 16, 2010, in Austrian cinemas from December 17, 2010 and in German-Swiss cinemas from December 23, 2010. The screenplay for the film is by Bruno Chiche, based on the novel by Martin Suter.
literature
Liliana Mitrache: Dementia from a literary perspective using the example of 'Small World' by Martin Suter In: Triangulum , Vol . 21.2015, pp. 449–458.