Illusions (Faber Editions)

Welcome to the Wellis Corporation. Twenty-three storeys of shimmering glass cubicles, rattling typewriters, spiralling corridors: a corporate kingdom with its own neon light.

Across the glittering panes, the acrobatic window cleaner swoops and dives, or pauses, still as a gargoyle, seeing things that nobody else sees.

Over one weekend, we follow four employees into their private worlds. An ageing secretary; a translator in a mid-life crisis; a once-glamorous typist; and a lovelorn trainee.

Together, they reveal the illusions we live by—in the workplace, in the home, and in our own mind's eye.

Lost for decades since it was first published in Germany in 1959, Illusions is introduced by Megan Nolan and features a hypnotic new translation by Rob Madole. This crystalline debut novel by a pioneering female writer rewrites German literary history.

'The rediscovery of this lost classic will shift perceptions of German literature in the English speaking world. Mercurial, seductive, smart and startling.' - Megan Nolan