Hundert Wörter für Schnee

The adventurous story of the conquest of the North Pole

The fateful life of Minik, who was brought to New York as an attraction at the age of nine.
An epic on the beauty of nature, broken by the egotism of western civilisation.

»Eis ist wie ein Hund. Es spürt deine Angst. Sobald du dich fürchtest, wird es gefährlich.«

In the autumn of 1897, the American explorer and adventurer Robert Peary brings six Inughuit, the name of the people living in the north of Greenland, to New York on a steamship. They were to be examined, but above all exhibited and displayed. Four of them quickly die of tuberculosis, one is brought back – but nine-year-old Minik stays. His story – baptism, school, fraudulent foster father, escape – makes it into the headlines. In Franzobel's novel, Minik not only becomes a pawn between seemingly ‘civilised’ American culture and the supposedly ‘primitive’ culture of of the Inughuit. His fate is a hero's song to the struggle for survival of an almost extinct people who have proven how man can survive even in the most inhospitable of regions.

»Im Februar kroch Frost in die Ohren. Der Wind hatte scharfe Zähne, der pulvrige Schnee eignete sich nicht zum Iglubau.«

Franzobel, born in Vöcklabruck in 1967, has been awarded the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, the Arthur Schnitzler Prize, the Nicolas Born Prize and the Bavarian Book Prize, among others. The historical novels ‘Das Floß der Medusa’ (2017), ‘Die Eroberung Amerikas’ (2021) and ‘Einsteins Hirn’ (2023), which have been translated into numerous languages, were recently published by Zsolnay.

Franzobel. Hundert Wörter für Schnee. Roman. Zsolnay

Duration: 60 min.
To participate in the event, all guests need a valid museum ticket (or an annual ticket, a KHM-Membership, a Kulturpass or a membership of the Weltmuseum Wien Friends).
Registration:  online (limited number of participants)
Meeting point: WMW Forum