Hanno Millesi "During the Time of the Snowfalls"

Hanno Millesi lives and works in Vienna. After studying art history and philosophy, he initially worked as a research associate at the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna, and subsequently became a freelance author; writing novels and short stories (radio plays, essays, collaborative projects); as an editor: Austropilot (co-edited with Xaver Bayer), and as an educator: at the Institute for Language Art at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna as well as at the School for Poetics in Vienna. His latest work is "Der junge Mann und das Meer. Erzählungen" (The Young Man and the Sea. Stories, Edition Atelier 2023).

**At the Time of the Snowfalls**
At the center of Hanno Millesi's novel "At the Time of the Snowfalls" lies a hole – one that inexplicably makes the wall of the protagonist Rainer's living room permeable. No one seems responsible for its emergence, not even a member of the Nolde family living on the other side. All involved are so astonished by the sudden crumbling of the familiar barrier that their first instinct is to conceal the damage rather than to find out its cause or even to repair it. As the living room wall continues to deteriorate, the state of being overwhelmed intensifies. Soon, there is essentially just a hole that allows glimpses in both directions. What were once private spaces transform into a kind of double impromptu stage, where the longing for the missing seclusion mingles with the complicated new state of coexistence. In the mutual observation, the protagonists reflect all their everyday needs, misjudgments, and inadequacies, which are explored with a keen sense of situational comedy. Was perhaps someone active on the 'other' side at night? Is there possibly a lover involved, or should both sides not even accept the situation and live together as a shared flat in the future?