Lesung „Ottos Schatten“ ein Debütroman von Marno Howald

In the organizer's words:

"Otto's Shadow" a debut novel by Marno Howald
There are days when fate can't decide between the bad and the good. Days when it doesn't roll the dice and takes what comes. Moments when it allows what we find difficult to bear.
In Otto's life, such a day began with Marie's birth and ended with the merciless certainty that his father was leaving. Just one moment that changed everything and forced him into a new, different life. A life with unconditional love for his Marie. A life with this new man at his mother's side, who cast his menacing shadow over everything that remained of beauty in Otto's life.

A drunkard and thug who repeatedly inflicted a considerable number of bruises on Otto's body, which did not heal for weeks. Otto's life is the story of a boy who swore to protect his own sister, to endure all evil, to keep it away from her and to endure what she was never allowed to experience.

Because it had to be him who endured it. For Marie!

What motivated you to write this book?

It's difficult to describe why I wrote what I wrote. But what I can say about it lies solely in the despair that has always surrounded me. It was always this one question about guilt. Was it ours or his? A constant struggle with the possible consequences, the right answer. But in the end, it could only be answered with one thought. The only option that remained.

How much violence can a child's soul endure?
Especially when the supposedly safe home holds more evil than the outside world! How loud can victims be when the perpetrators brag about their crimes?

I don't want to be silent! I don't want to be quiet! I want to shout it out and point the finger at him! Brand him and find him guilty! My stepfather was never convicted, never confronted, because he died a long time ago. So I will never get the chance to shout in his face how much he disgusts me. I can't, and my sister can't. We will have to live with leaving it unfinished in some way forever. But we can pick up the pieces and start to glue them together. We can repair what has been destroyed as best we can.

That was my motivation for writing my first novel, "Otto's Shadow".

Even though I had to realize that the little wounded boy in me kept creeping to the surface and pushing the grown man into the background in order to write in his very own way.

Marno Howald has already performed on stage with Konstantin Wecker and is an unusual musician who sketches his songs with his individual, authentic and sometimes sarcastic signature. It's not that he can be musically pinned down to one genre, as that would only hinder his creativity. Nevertheless, you can sense his own style in the way he writes his lyrics and the topics he addresses. Sometimes with a smile at the corner of his mouth, sometimes with melancholy, but sometimes with the unvarnished truth.

He is ironic, humorous, critical, cheeky, questioning, answering, loving and suffering, autobiographical and romantic. Surprising in any case! You never know whether he's being mischievous or whether he's outlining a political topic in an "evil" way.

Start 19:00
Admission 18:30
The Bull Eye Bar is open
Tickets 5 € VVK and 10 € B.O.

Ticket link online

Price information:

Start 19:00 hrs Admission 18:30 hrs The Bull Eye Bar is open Tickets 5 € VVK and 10€ B.O.