New from Moloko Plus: climate fiction from 1915.
Heinrich Nowak – Die Sonnenseuche
Heinrich Nowak’s tale Die Sonnenseuche (The Scourge of the Sun) was first published in 1915 in the expressionist magazine Die weißen Blätter from Leipzig. Inspired by reports of an exceptional and life-threatening heatwave in the USA, the apocalyptic tale remained virtually unnoticed until it was re-published as a book in 1920. In condensed and bone-dry sentences, reminiscent of Boris Vian, Nowak sketches the effects that an intolerable heatwave has on the population of a nondescript large town. Feverish and strangely prophetic, Nowak’s Die Sonnenseuche can now be considered one of the earliest examples of dystopian climate fiction. With a postscript by Wilfried Ihrig, cover art by Egon Schiele and book design by Michael Bulgrin, Moloko Plus has done an excellent job reprinting this classic tale.