It was supposed to be a picture of a tall African woman on a carousel in a southern Italian coastal town, a snapshot, but another motif was saved on the smartphone image file, a water carrier in the African bushland: Bodo Kirchhoff's “Report on the Situation of Happiness” begins with a Riddle - or is it a miracle?

-, recorded in a newspaper, discovered there by the first-person narrator of the novel, who searches for and finds the refugee woman, travels on with her and two months later remembers someone who "despite all affection and probably also love was a stranger to him to the last" stayed.

On October 6th, Bodo Kirchhoff presented his new, large work in the Frankfurt Literaturhaus - in extended readings and in conversation with Hubert Spiegel.

“Report on the Situation of Happiness” by Bodo Kirchhoff was published by the Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, has 680 pages and costs 28 euros.

Every Sunday morning, the FAZ books podcast alternates between conversations about books and topics, interviews with authors, readings, literary puzzles and recitations from the Frankfurt anthology.

All episodes and other articles on the topics discussed can be found here. 

You can easily subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Deezer and never miss a new episode.

Of course we are also available in other podcast apps, just search for "FAZ Bücher-Podcast" there.

You can also find us in the FAZ.NET app. 

You can find all of our podcast offers here.