The Liberal and the Mirror

A Tale of a Most Unusual Incident in Lutherstadt Wittenberg
Erscheinungsjahr 2027
ISBN: 978-3-8382-2371-1
Verlag: Ibidem-Verlag

Buch, Englisch, 94 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 134 g

Reihe: Edition Noema

Sometimes a single extraordinary incident can illuminate an entire social phenomenon. If you wish to understand the dilemmas, contradictions, and self-deceptions of Russia’s liberal opposition in exile, this novella offers a strikingly unusual perspective.

A well-known Russian liberal writer arrives in Lutherstadt Wittenberg for a literary event. Alone in his hotel room, he begins rehearsing the opening remarks for the next day’s audience. But something is terribly wrong. In the antique mirror hanging on the wall, he no longer sees his own reflection.

Instead, a mysterious figure with an ever-changing face looks back at him.

What begins as a moment of unease soon turns into a relentless conversation. The stranger in the mirror challenges the writer’s convictions, his memories, his understanding of culture, politics, history, and even of himself. Throughout a long night in the city of Luther’s Reformation, certainty gives way to doubt, and comfortable truths are dismantled one by one.

What happened to the writer in Wittenberg? A hallucination? A visitation? Or an encounter with the truth he had spent a lifetime avoiding?

Judge for yourself.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Silbermann, Viktor

Über Autor(innen)

Silbermann, Viktor
The author of this book was born in Odessa after World War II. He studied electrical engineering at the Odessa Polytechnic Institute, after which he worked for various energy organizations. In parallel, in 1974, he received his doctorate from the Ural Polytechnic Institute for his work on relay protection in power systems. In 1992 he completed his habilitation at the Peter the Great Polytechnic University in Saint Petersburg, specializing in the automation of nuclear power plants. He has lived in Germany since 1993, continuing his engineering and scientific work for various German companies. In addition to his main activities, he also wrote articles on cultural topics, which he published in various Soviet and German newspapers. Following his retirement in 2021, he published a novella and two books of short stories in Germany and the USA.