Love is just a word
What is love? Unknown country.
He first saw her on Sunday, September 4, 1960, at the airport. A woman with bluish-black hair, twelve years older than him, was just making out with her lover. He immediately fell head over heels in love with her with the fierceness and naivety of a lonely, twenty-one-year-old heart. Thus began Oliver and Vera's fateful drama about the bliss of love, abysmal despair, jealousy, hatred and hope.
Austrian classic Johannes Mario Simmel chose for his love story the setting of a German private boarding school, where children of wealthy parents, spoiled by luxury but often emotionally deprived, usually study. Among them is Oliver Mansfeld, the son of a millionaire embezzler, for whom Dr. Florian's school represents a chance to finally graduate. He had already deliberately forfeited three times before to humiliate his hated father. Above all, however, the young man's passionate relationship with Verena Lord, the wife of a banker with a Nazi past, becomes important. A love that must remain secret is soon the subject of blackmail, and the noose around the lovers tightens inexorably...
The novel, which follows in the footsteps of the most famous stories of love and death, was made into a film in 1971 by German director Alfred Vohrer. Actor Malte Torsten won the Film Award in Gold for Best Young Actor for his portrayal of Oliver. In 2010, a German TV adaptation was made. The Czech translation of the book has been published in eight editions, but this is the first time it has been released as an audiobook.
They wrote about the book:
Few contemporary authors have such a fascinating insight into the backgrounds, difficulties and motivations of their characters as Simmel.
- Marcel Reich-Ranicki, German literary critic and publicist
I first read the novel in my teens, and then again twenty years later. It is exquisitely written, with suspense, betrayal and hopeless romance. Once you start reading it, you won't be able to stop.
- Meyvn, USA
Johannes Mario Simmel
Johannes Mario Simmel (* 7 April 1924 - † 1 January 2009) was born on 7 April 1924 in Vienna, spent his childhood alternately in Austria and England, and later lived in Switzerland. After the war, he worked as an interpreter for the US military administration. Afterwards he worked as a journalist in Vienna and Munich. He worked as a reporter, film reviewer and feyetonist. His first book was published in 1948. In 1951 he joined the community of German writers known as the Group of 47. With nearly thirty brilliant social-critical novels published in 35 countries in some 73 million copies, he is one of the world's most successful authors. Most of his works have been made into films. He was a recipient of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art 1st Class and in 1991 he received the Award of Excellence from the Society of Writers under the auspices of the United Nations. In 1993 he received the German PEN Club's award. He died on 1 January 2009.
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| Code: | AK1F950 |