This is the story of Oliver and Verena, who fall in love and risk everything to keep each other. He is the son of a notorious German industrialist. She is the voluptuous, indiscreet wife of a wealthy and ruthless businessman. Apart they have been two lonely people. Half alive. Together, they are radiant. But even as they reach out for happiness, they have begun to suspect the destiny that lies in wait for them. (Originally published in German)
Author
Johannes Mario Simmel was an Austrian writer. He was born in Vienna and grew up in Austria and England. He was trained as a chemical engineer and worked in research from 1943 to the end of World War II. After the end of the war, he worked as a translator for the American military government and published reviews and stories in the Vienna Welt am Abend. Starting in 1950, he worked as a reporter for the Munich illustrated Quick in Europe and America. He wrote a number of screenplays and novels, which have sold tens of millions of copies. Many of his novels were successfully filmed in the 1960s and 1970s. He won numerous prizes, including the Award of Excellence of the Society of Writers of the UN. Important issues in his novels are a fervent pacifism as well as the relativity of good and bad. Several novels are said to have a true background, possibly autobiographic. According to his Swiss lawyer, Simmel died on January 1, 2009 in Lucerne, at 84 years of age.
