First published 2014
Franz Huchel arrives in Vienna from the Austrian mountains in August 1937 to apprentice under Otto Tresniek, a one-legged tobacco shop owner with a sharp tongue and strong principles. The shop attracts customers from Vienna's working class and Jewish bourgeoisie during the turbulent 1930s. Franz quickly absorbs political awareness through newspapers and street rumors about rising National Socialism, but romance proves more challenging. Desperately in love with Anezka, a cabaret performer, the inexperienced young man seeks advice from an unlikely mentor: Sigmund Freud himself, a regular customer who lives nearby and smokes Cuban cigars. Despite his age and jaw cancer, Freud takes interest in this curious country boy. Their unlikely friendship and Franz's apprenticeship end abruptly in March 1938 when the Anschluss transforms Vienna. Otto faces Gestapo persecution for refusing to boycott his Jewish customers, while Freud prepares for exile in England. Franz must navigate this transformed world, carrying the lessons of his mentors even as their society crumbles around them.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, political-thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, mentor-mentee
Setting: Vienna, Austria, England
Period: 1937, 1938, 1930s
249 pages · Paperback · Sabine Wespieser