Wer die bessere Geschichte hat, gewinnt.

Read about my novel

Die Welt ist im Kopf=The World in the Head

(This text courtesy of Diogenes Rights Department)
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)

Arthur Scho­pen­hau­er was born in 1788. He died in 1860

The phi­lo­so­pher Arthur Scho­pen­hau­er would be only too plea­sed to see phi­lo­so­phers and wri­ters reac­ting to his ide­as – to see Hegel giving up his thro­ne, and the elder­ly Goe­the paying tri­bu­te to him, a mere 30 year old. But publi­ca­ti­on of his ground­brea­king work has been delayed.

Lord Byron of Roch­da­le, born 1788, died 1824.

And so Scho­pen­hau­er lea­ves Dres­den for Ita­ly in the late sum­mer of 1818 without his book in his suit­ca­se – he is still a nobo­dy. Even befo­re he arri­ves he attracts the atten­ti­on of Metternich’s secret poli­ce: Goethe’s note recom­men­ding him to Lord Byron – a man with a wide repu­ta­ti­on as a poet and as a figu­re of scan­dal – cas­ts sus­pi­ci­on on Scho­pen­hau­er and makes him unwel­co­me in Aus­tri­an-occu­p­ied Veneto.

But once he gets to Veni­ce, Scho­pen­hau­er refu­ses to be dri­ven out – and cer­tain­ly not after he meets Tere­sa. For Tere­sa shows the young phi­lo­so­pher that he still needs to rethink one point in his world view: his idea of love.

The first votes are in: Booksellers‹ praise for »Die Welt ist im Kopf«

»an ama­zing debut«

»one of the litera­ry high­lights this year«

»I never thought that this topic could fasci­na­te me so much. A grip­ping novel with an insight into the 19. century«

»Scho­pen­hau­er, Lord Byron, Goe­the, Brock­haus, Met­ter­nich – true­ly hono­r­able names appe­ar in this book. And all are pre­sen­ted as strong indi­vi­du­al characters.«

»Chris­toph Poschen­rie­der tells lively and poi­gnant – his lan­guage is beau­ti­ful­ly chosen.«

»one of the smar­test books this spring«

… and here’s a first batch of press reviews:

»The World in the Head tru­ly deser­ves to be cal­led a pas­sio­na­te debut. Chris­toph Poschen­rie­der not only shows a remar­kab­le feel for lan­guage but also a sen­se for iro­ny and joy in his story-telling.«
buch­jour­nal

»With an intui­ti­ve sen­se of the past, Chris­toph Poschen­rie­der suc­ceeds not only in por­tray­ing Scho­pen­hau­er in love but also depicts a lively pan­ora­ma of an era torn bet­ween Res­to­ra­ti­on and the desi­re for freedom.« 
Maga­zin In München

»Chris­toph Poschenrieder’s debut nego­tia­tes the deli­ca­te line bet­ween his­to­ri­cal fact and litera­ry fic­tion, and does so in a con­vin­cing and grip­ping man­ner. His debut is an inspi­ring jour­ney through phi­lo­so­phy and art.« 
Ost­thü­rin­ger Zeitung

»As well as sim­ply a sple­ndid por­trait of an exci­ting epoch, this novel deli­vers a refi­ned love sto­ry rep­le­te with secret agents, the Vene­ti­an Car­ni­val, and a dog. Who­soever is rea­dy to cast asi­de cli­chés of Scho­pen­hau­er the phi­lo­so­pher as miso­gy­nist and pes­si­mist, will glean much plea­su­re from this intel­li­gent book.« 
literaturkurier.de

»Poschen­rie­der has suc­cee­ded in breat­hing life into a poten­ti­al­ly unwie­l­dy subject.« 
Rhei­ni­sche Post

»The charm of this book lies in the author’s abi­li­ty to be inspi­red by Schopenhauer’s real life and to make the bare facts pulsa­te with life – he makes the rea­der curious to re-dis­co­ver one of the gre­at minds of Ger­man phi­lo­so­phy. No mean feat: a start­ling debut novel.« 
Augs­bur­ger Allgemeine

»Poschenrieder’s sen­si­ti­ve and lively ima­gi­na­ti­on draws us into a tor­rent of poe­try and truth, a whirl­pool of quo­tes, allu­si­ons, and events that crea­te a pan­or­amic view of the time with a twist of the gro­tes­que. A won­der­ful­ly intel­li­gent, exci­ting, mas­ter­ful­ly com­po­sed book, one that is a sen­su­al delight to read. A flaw­less good read for the initiated.« 
Lands­hu­ter Zeitung

»Never have we expe­ri­en­ced the pre­su­med pes­si­mist in this light. Here is an unex­pec­ted Scho­pen­hau­er, a world away from the pes­si­mistic, bad-tem­pe­red cli­ché. Poschen­rie­der descri­bes it all from a deli­ca­te­ly iro­nic slant in incredi­b­ly finely craf­ted lan­guage that brings a viva­ci­ty and relish to the his­to­ri­cal facts.«
hr-online

And »New Books in German« says:

»This won­der­ful­ly sen­si­ti­ve and lively novel cen­tres on the phi­lo­so­pher Arthur Schopenhauer’s first jour­ney to Ita­ly in 1819 at the age of thir­ty one, having just com­ple­ted his magnum opus The World as Will and Repre­sen­ta­ti­on. Both respect­ful and play­ful at the same time, Poschen­rie­der makes the most of the exhilara­ting detail of the cele­bra­ted thinker’s life.«

(Com­ple­te review)

About the Author

Chris­toph Poschen­rie­der, born in 1964 near Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts, lives in Munich, Germany.

He stu­di­ed at the Jesuits’ Hoch­schu­le für Phi­lo­so­phie in Munich, and wro­te his the­sis on Scho­pen­hau­er. He also atten­ded the Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty Jour­na­lism School, New York City.
He has been working as a free­lan­ce jour­na­list and docu­men­ta­ry film maker sin­ce 1993; sin­ce 2001 he has also been wri­ting inst­ruc­tion manu­als for com­pu­ter soft­ware. ›The World is in the Head‹ is his first novel.
He is alrea­dy working on the next one.

The Publisher: Diogenes

Dio­ge­nes is Europe’s lar­gest publis­her pure­ly dedi­ca­ted to litera­ry fiction.

Here’s more infor­ma­ti­on on Dio­ge­nes (in English).