Author Cordula Simon

The perceived truth shines as bright as the moon

Styrian author Cordula Simon recently made a name for herself with her scientific exploration of the gender craze - as we reported. Now she is publishing her new novel "Mondkälber" (Moon Calves) - once again she deals with perceived truths and their impact.

Suddenly it's there, standing unmistakably in the night sky: a second moon. Where does it come from? What effects will it have? And is it even real? These questions soon divide not only society, but also the friendship between Irina and Jewgenij, which is at the center of Cordula Simon's new novel "Moon Calves".

An undefined "subject" serves as her narrator and observer of this friendship and the increasingly absurd world. Because it doesn't really matter whether the second moon is real or not - its effects on the world are. The episodes that Simon strings together in "Moon Calves" become increasingly surreal and fabulous. The boundary between fact and fiction seems to be blurred; every image that appears before the reader's eyes could also be a mirage.

After Cordula Simon recently wrote the dystopia of a surveillance state in "Die Wölfe von Pripyat" (2022), she is now once again exploring a burning question of the present day in "Mondkälber": What happens to reality when it is increasingly determined by perceived truths? Of course, you won't find any simple answers in this dark novel - but perhaps you will recognize your own reflection between the lines.

Cordula Simon, "Mondkälber", Septime Verlag, 168 pages, 22 euros