»What distinguishes Glattauer is not only his wit, but also his eye for extraordinary perspectives.« - Tanja Kummer, SRF
Two families, the Binders and the Strobl-Marineks, are treating themselves to a luxury holiday in Tuscany. Engelbert Binder is a charming wine-maker, his considerably younger wife Melanie a failed actress. Oskar Marinek is a cynical humanities scholar, and his wife Elisa Strobl-Marinek is a successful politician for the Green Party. Sophie Luise, the Strobl-Marinek’s teen daughter, has brought along a schoolmate to fight the boredom. Her name is Aayana, a child refugee from Somalia. But no sooner has the holiday mood begun with chilled prosecco and antipasti than catastrophe strikes.
You Don’t See Them is a novel about relationships in the style we have come to expect from Glattauer. And it’s a court drama – a genre he is particularly apt at writing after working for years as a court reporter.
The novel uses many text styles (blog posts, E-mails, comments, newspaper articles and dialogues) and thus presents a ‘best-of’ in Glattauer’s repertoire. Glattauer uses these elements to take a snapshot of morality in a privileged society, exposing its double standards and lending a voice to those who have virtually none.