Me and Kaminski

With edgy wit and intelligence, Daniel Kehlmann dives into the problems of what is "truth" in our celebrity-crazed times and embraces the energy and humanity that lie beneath the pretensions of the art and journalistic worlds. A firecracker of a novel. Sebastian Zollner's failure as a journalist is matched only by his personal failures. Searching for the break that will redeem him in the eyes of his peers, he sets out to write the essential biography on the eccentric painter Manuel Kaminski. All he needs to do is ingratiate himself with Kaminski's family, wait for the great man to kick the bucket, and then reap the awards. But Kaminski has an agenda of his ownone that will take them both on a hilarious wild goose-chase.

Daniel Kehlmann was born in Munich and now lives in Vienna. He has received major awards for his work, most recently the 2005 Candide Award. He was the writer-in-residence at New York University's Deutsches Haus in 2006.


From the Hardcover edition.