Daniel Glattauer

Daniel Glattauer (born 19 May 1960) is an Austrian writer and former journalist. He was born in Vienna, where he still lives and works. A former regular columnist for Der Standard, a national daily newspaper, he is best known for his dialogic epistolary novel Gut gegen Nordwind and its sequel Every Seventh Wave (Alle sieben Wellen).

His literary works were translated into 40 languages, sold over 3 million times and adapted for radio, theater, television and cinema alike, even beyond the German speaking countries. In 2006 he was nominated for the German Book Prize (Deutscher Buchpreis) for his novel Gut gegen Nordwind. This was later translated into English by Jamie Bulloch and Katharina Bielenberg, and published by MacLehose Press in 2011 as Love Virtually.

Glattauer's novels and plays are inspired by his personal experiences, dealing with situations and themes constructed from memories of his time as a journalist and his psychosocial counsellor training.

Glattauer is not the only journalist and author in his family. Herbert O. Glattauer, his father, is a retired journalist and freelance writer, having published multiple books. He also wrote around 40 short stories under the pseudonym 'Oscar Hannibal Pippering', starring a private detective of the same name. Daniel Glattauer's elder brother, Nikolaus (1959–2025), was a journalist, author and teacher in Vienna, having published books with a humorous take on education. Since the birth of Theo, Glattauer's nephew, Daniel documented his upbringing and maturing in short texts and interviews and further made him the topic of two books, "Theo und der Rest der Welt" (1997) and "Theo. Antworten aus dem Kinderzimmer" (2010). to be a psychosocial counsellor. with his wife Lisi Glattauer and five Indian runner ducks.

Recently Daniel Glattauer and his wife, with the help of the winemaker Barbara Öhlzeit, started tending to and producing their own wine. The 2015 vintage is named after his most successful novel, "Gut gegen Nordwind - Glattauers Gemischte Sätze", and the 2016 batch is currently maturing.

Style Glattauer's "elegant" and "light" style that characterizes most of his humorous prose are ascribed to the years of journalistic experience he gathered during his time as columnist at Der Standard.

Inspiration and themes Glattauer's first play "Die Wunderübung" was inspired directly by the psychosocial counselling course he attended in 2010. It is a minimalistic play with three characters, a constantly fighting married couple and their couples therapist who resorts to unconventional methods to fix their relationship.

Even as a retired journalist he finds inspiration in newspapers. He stumbled across the idea for his novel "Geschenkt", two years prior to its publication in 2014, in a newspaper article reporting on an anonymous donation made for people in need in Braunschweig, Germany. This story itself was highly publicized at the time and referred to as "the miracle of Braunschweig" ("das Wunder von Braunschweig.")

Public reception

Public image In a review published in Die Presse, Anna-Maria Wallner admits that Glattauer writes "amusing dialogues" ("amüsante Dialoge") but simultaneously critiques him for having a too intense focus on romantic relationships in most of his novels. Consistent with Wallner's review, the phrase "feel-good-author" is used in various reviews and interviews, implying a lack of depth to his work.

Reception At first Glattauer's reputation as a journalist hindered his success as an author in his home country. Austrian literary critics would think of him as a journalist whose hobby was writing books in his free time. As a result, there is a lack of domestic, analytical, literary reviews of his work, which offers and explanation for his relatively moderate success in Austria compared to Germany, where his works are strongly promoted. Taking the roundabout way through Austria's neighboring country, the national reception of Glattauer's work, although delayed, was overall very good.

Adaptations of his work

Theater On 7 May 2009 the theater adaptation of Love Virtually premiered at the "Theater in der Josefstadt". While Glattauer co-wrote the adaptation, the stage production was directed by Michael Kreihsl, starring Ruth Brauer-Kvam and Alexander Pschill in the lead roles. In the theater season of 2010/11 the adaptation had, tremendous success in the German-speaking countries, its 374 performances only being topped by Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Visit.

Glattauer's play "Die Wunderübung" premiered on 22 January 2015, shortly after he wrote it in 2014. Three years later, the Austrian screenwriter and director Harald Sicheritz produced Glattauer's "Darum" for the cinema. Neither the movie "Der Weihnachtshund" nor "Darum" were as successful as the theater versions of Glattauer's other novels. Produced by Clive Brill for Pacificus Productions, the abridged play starred Emilia Fox and David Tennant in the lead roles of Emmi Rothner and Leo Leike. The program was first broadcast at 2:15 p.m. on 8 March 2012 and ran for a week. Describing the play as "sharply written, funny and brilliantly played", Elisabeth Mahoney's review in the Guardian is representative of the show's overall positive public reception.

Awards and nominations 2006 Nomination for the German Book Prize for Love Virtually 2007 Love Virtually wins the Austrian literary award "Buchliebling" in the category "Literatur, Romane, Belletristik" ["literature, novels, fiction"]