Thomas Arzt: Die Gegenstimme.

Opposing Voice. Novel.
Residenz Verlag, 2021.
192 pages; EUR 20,-.
ISBN 978-3-7017-1736-1.

"Palm Sunday, April 1938, and the place is all decked out." But the cause for celebration on this April 10 isn’t Jesus’s arrival in Jerusalem, but retroactively legitimizing Austria’s "Anschluss" (annexation) by Nazi Germany. On this occasion, Karl Bleimfeldner returns to his hometown from Innsbruck, where he’s been studying history.
With his first novel, Thomas Arzt has followed the traces of his great-uncle. He’s done meticulous research and tried to find out how it came about that, in April 1938, Karl was the only resident of a small Austrian village to vote against the "Anschluss" (annexation) of Austria by Nazi Germany.
Karl Bleimfeldner is at the center of action, but he is neither stylized as a heroic resistance fighter, nor are his motives ever completely clear. One of the novel’s main strengths is that it never lapses into one-sided interpretations, but rather allows ambivalence, showing subtleties of character and social nuances. Arzt is not one to delve into after-the-fact pedantic explanations; he is a writer who sets the scene with adept literary craft.
The ensemble of characters in the novel forms a diverse social panorama; the pressure everyone is under in one way or another blatantly brings out the people’s fears and needs, strengths and weaknesses. Some react with resentment and anger to Bleimfeldner’s titular "opposing voice," others with shamefaced admiration.
A special feature of the novel is undoubtably its use of language. The narrative style is based on spoken language, adopts colloquial expressions and syntactic constructions of the oral vernacular, and yet always makes it obvious that this is not a documentary account but an artistically crafted narrative.
Thomas Arzt is one of Austria’s most successful playwrights and Die Gegenstimme (Opposing Voice) is his first novel. It is precisely in the dialogues, which repeatedly break off and unravel, that the author’s skill becomes apparent. Even though the term "diversity of voices" has been overused by now, it is very apt for this brilliant novel. A politically lucid and clever, not to mention very verbally accomplished, debut.

Abridged version of the review by Harald Gschwandtner, 5 July 2021.
Translation by Ida Cerne.

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