At least since his novel "The Swarm" (2004), in which an unknown intelligent life form from the sea threatens mankind, Frank Schätzing has been one of the most widely read authors in Germany.

Born in Cologne, who will be 65 in May, he still lives in his native city with his wife Sabina.

His current book "What if we just save the world?" describes the drama of climate change.

That's what his performance at the lit.COLOGNE literature festival in Cologne will be about on March 26th.

Peter Philipp Schmitt

Editor in the department "Germany and the World".

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What do you eat for breakfast?

I mix coffee with cocoa powder or melt a piece of chocolate in the espresso.

This is my start.

So frugal.

In addition croissant and orange marmalade.

That's it.

That is, now and then scrambled eggs or fried eggs.

And toasted walnut bread with brie and Parma ham.

And another one with the good Cologne liver sausage.

Also pancakes.

With maple syrup.

Oh, and a slice of lemon pie!

Fresh smoothies.

Is that still frugal?

Where do you buy your clothes?

Wherever something jumps out at me.

In London, the first route leads to Paul Smith, in Cologne to Daniels.

I like to go shopping, but Sabina finds the coolest pieces.

Where clothes are hanging so tightly together on hangers that I get dizzy, she lets her eyes wander, purposefully pulls out a part, and that's it!

What is the oldest item of clothing in your closet?

Here's what happened: When I was two years old, I was given a 50 centimeter high cuddly doll, a yogi bear made of plush and plastic.

I couldn't see why I had clothes and the bear didn't.

My mother could sew, so she gave in to my whining and sewed the bear a blue and yellow checked jacket.

Bear and jacket are in the closet today.

When was the last time you wrote a letter by hand?

To the scientists at the Neumayer Station in Antarctica.

Adjacent to the station is a container, the southernmost library in the world.

Great project!

A book can be dedicated to the Neumayer team, it shouldn't necessarily be your own, so I chose HP Lovecraft's Antarctic tale "Mountains of Madness" - accompanied by a handwritten letter to these remarkable adventurers who live in the perpetual ice like on another planet.

What book has impressed you the most in life?

I don't have these lonely frontrunners.

Not in literature, film or music.

More of a top ten that is constantly changing.

But whoever says it is Franz Kafka.

I think "The Metamorphosis" is the best literary horror story of all time.

Factual, gruesome, unsurpassed.

How do you find out about world events?

Via all reputable news channels, parallel, around the clock.

What's your favorite small talk topic?

What interests my interlocutors the most.

You're off the hook with that.

What was the last movie that made you cry?

"Bambi".

In the cinema.

I was still very young back then and my horror at the death of Bambi's mother was all the greater.

The cinema was full of children.

One pitiful lamentation against the injustice of fate.

Are you superstitious?