Overheard

In his early thirties, Kurt Endlicher has finally settled down, with a steady job as a teacher and a small flat to call his own. But the walls are thin, and he and his neighbors can overhear every cough, footstep, and toilet flush. Initially annoyed by the intimacy, he gradually learns to appreciate the value of community and discovers the key to his own happiness. Overheard is set in Vienna in the mid-2010s, a time of significant social change and political conflict, with tens of thousands of Middle Eastern refugees arriving and protests taking place over a café’s expulsion of two women who greeted each other with a kiss. Kurt is gay, but his best friend is not. He has a soft spot for the city’s newcomers as well as its longtime residents. He’s a sympathetic listener, leading him—and the reader—to revisit and reevaluate assumptions. Originally published as Tür an Tür (literally “door-to-door” but more accurately “next-door neighbors”), Dominik Barta’s novel is a page-turner filled with humor, insight, and a suspenseful plot. Overheard combines visions of an idealized past and a longed-for future to create a present that we all want to inhabit.