How do we find real life? By retreating into untouched nature? After death, in immortality? Through the lives of our children?
Michael Hampe explores these questions in order to stop them turning into existential will-o’-the-wisps.
For this purpose he invents the poet and philosopher Moritz Brandt. His friend Aaron is sorting through his estate when he comes across diaries and essays in which Brandt reflects on what constitutes real life. The more he immerses himself in the texts, the more frequently Aaron asks himself: Where does this desire to change, to become real, come from?
Hampe masterfully combines narrative and reflection in order to illuminate how distinguishing between appearance and reality prevents us from coming to terms with our lives.