Vanja

How deeply does love change a person? Does it merely shape him or can it completely transform his identity? Why can a past that isn’t even his own—but rather the past of other people—influence him and his life? These questions form the thematic core of the novel Vanja, at the heart of which Möderndorfer places a sensitive protagonist who is often marginalized because of his differences. In a tense, dynamic story that spans from World War II to the recent past, we follow the tragic fate of an individual whom it would be difficult to accuse of anything other than naivety and gullibility. 

After his death, the title character looks back on the path he has taken in life: even as a child, he was very sensitive; he was deeply marked by the death of his mother, to whom he was very attached, and by the opinion of society—superstitious people avoid him because he is red-haired, which is supposed to be a sign of evil and the devil. Lacking true family support, he grows up to be an insecure, gullible, and naive man who marries the wrong woman, only to later abandon her and their child for the mysterious Ana, a deceitful, thieving girl with an extreme imagination. In his long-term relationship with her, he refuses to acknowledge her faults or the fact that Ana is manipulating him; he lives a lie and believes her with all the naivety of a war orphan.

Vanja is the concluding volume of the trilogy, which includes Möderndorfer’s novels The Countdown and Star, Spoon and Clock. Each novel can also be read as a self-contained whole.