Cancer

„This is an important book.” Dieter Hildebrandt

Poetic, stark, deeply moving! After receiving the appalling diagnosis, the life of his wife is in the hands of the medical profession. Intimate, frank, and devoid of pathos, but with the deep despair of someone who has to watch the person they love most in the world dying, Werner Schneyder recounts the last two years he spent with his wife. This book is a work of literary brilliance. Not only is it an unflinching medical case history, but also a critical reflection on the various contingencies inherent in the doctor-patient relationship, the efficacy of the treatments on offer, and experiences that push us to our existential limits. But ultimately it is a declaration of love, advocating togetherness to the very end. He asks the questions that no one dares to mention at times of supposed happiness: are all forms of treatment justified and worthwhile? What is simply prolonging the agony? Can life at any cost still be called life? Have we forgotten how to die?


Werner Schneyder, born in Graz, Austria, in 1937, studied journalism and art history. At the outset a journalist and copywriter, he went on to work as a dramatic adviser. Starting in 1965 he was employed as a television writer and director, then from 1975 as a politico-literary cabaret artist, initially in collaboration with Dieter Hildebrandt, after 1982 with solo-programmes and chansons. Currently a playwright, theatre director and actor, Werner Schneyder lives in Vienna and Carinthia.