Will is the result of a one-night stand between a German literary student and an Irish woman. He’s working in the language industry but is not very successful and must take on various jobs just to get by. Now middle-aged, he finds himself charged with the translation of Humperdink’s opera Hänsel und Gretel. When the project is delivered, quality control discovers the ‘different translation’. The publishing house NBW gets cold feet and resigns from the contract with the Opera House. Oleg Vasiliev, its director, is outraged. Not only was the opera a crucial part of the city’s series of cultural events to celebrate its jubilee, but he had intended for the performance to accompany his own personal fulminante – when he would dramatically synchronise his death with the opera’s final note. With claims in all directions now amounting to several millions, NBW must find a scapegoat to take the blame. Will finds himself drawn into a situation he can´t control. Nobody seems to understand him although all parties concerned speak the same language. This is a book about the desire to understand one another. It explores possibilities of conveying meaning: what is language and where are the limits of understanding?weiterlesen