Flight or Fight
Published by Diogenes as Sobald wir angekommen sind
Original Title: Sobald wir angekommen sind

Ben Oppenheim is juggling his ex-wife, two children and his love for Julia, and he urgently needs money. He is hoping for a breakthrough with his new screenplay. His producer, however, rejects the Holocaust subject matter. Yet the persecution of his forefathers shapes Ben’s thoughts and feelings to this day. When Russia threatens nuclear strike, Ben obeys his flight instinct. The Oppenheim family takes the next plane to Brazil.

Audacious, intelligent, paranoid, self-deprecating and full of wit, this is a debut novel about the burning issues of our era.

Contemporary Literature
288 pages
2024

978-3-257-07315-7
Micha
Lewinsky

Micha Lewinsky, born in 1972 in Kassel, is a scriptwriter and film director, including for The Friend (›Swiss Film Prize‹), Will You Marry Us? and One-Way to Moscow. He also wrote the children’s book Holly in Heaven. His 2024 literary debut Flight or Fight spent weeks on the Swiss bestseller list and was nominated for the ›Prix Médicis‹ in France.

Photo: © Doris Fanconi

Pressezitate

Annemarie Stoltenberg
NDR Kultur, Hamburg

»Micha Lewinsky's novel Flight or Fight is a refined play on our anxieties about the future.«

SRF, Zurich

»Is Flight or Fight going to make it to the big screen? We may eagerly look forward to the journey of this audacious, smart novel.«

Petra Hartlieb
ORF, Vienna

»Highly comical, highly funny, but of course very tragic, too.«

Ruhr Nachrichten, Dortmund

»A most amusing read.«

Ruhr Nachrichten, Dortmund

»If you like Woody Allen films, you should also like Micha Lewinsky's novel Flight or Fight. They have the same humor.«

Nürnberger Nachrichten

»A splendid debut!«

Hans Jürg Zinsli
Kulturtipp, Zurich

»An almost startling lightness, which could be described as self-ironic reflection, blends into the Jewish fears of persecution that Lewinsky has never expressed so clearly.»

Aargauer Zeitung, Baden

»Micha Lewinsky's tragicomic novel skillfully merges the oppressive present with wit and a sense of effortless ease.«

Ariane Singer
Le Monde des Livres, Paris

»Micha Lewinsky’s crazy first novel effectively revisits the issue of the intergenerational transmission of trauma, while tackling the current resurgence of antisemitism around the world with bite.«

Bernard Quiriny
L'Opinion, Paris

»With hilarious sketches, well-crafted dialogue and colourful secondary characters, Micha Lewinsky wins hands down in every category of the comedy marathon.«

Anne Pitteloud
Le Courrier, Geneva

»Both an intimate epic and a reconciliation with heritage, a reflection on responsibility, love and the wear and tear of relationships, on the fine line between reason and madness, Flight or Fight casually provides some keys to understanding the current tragedy.«