In May 2013 I published my second book , SEBASTIAN . Here are a few thoughts about what motivated me to write it and answers to some questions I have been asked about the book .
SEBASTIAN is the second book in my Three Nations Trilogy , a series on war torn Central Europe that focuses on how lives could be changed by politics and cultural and ethnic developments .
Christoph Fischer
THE LUCK OF THE WEISSENSTEINERS was about a group of Jewish and Catholic people in Slovakia during WWII , “ Sebastian ” is about a family in Vienna around WWI . The stories are using similar themes but are not connected directly .
SEBASTIAN is based on an idea I have always had of my grandfather when I was young . I unfortunately never met him because my grandfather had divorced my grandmother and lived with his new family on the other side of the Berlin Wall . None of us ever met them until the late Eighties , by which time my grandfather sadly had already passed on .
Like Sebastian in my book he lost his leg due to an accident , which is at the heart of “ Sebastian ”, a young man who has to come to terms with this loss , his responsibilities and the life in a time where great political and personal changes bring in a new era .
I already wrote about World War II in THE LUCK OF THE WEISSENSTEINERS and so I transferred the story to a different era . I had read and heard so much about that time and Vienna that it seemed the logical setting , particularly since it was described as a perfect place for Jews at the time , something that so often is referred to in literature that talks about the horrors that followed .
As a gay man I was always fascinated and frightened by the ideals of ‘ real ’ men , strength and masculinity as their main attributes and the requirement to finding love . How could a man like my Sebastian find love ? A friend of my father had a wooden leg and I was scared stiff of it when I was younger . Much later did I learn about my grandfather ’ s wooden leg . I was astonished to hear that my grandfather had divorced my grandmother and had easily re-married .
Unfortunately I was able to learn only a little about my grandfather and his life from my aunt . Much of the details she gave me about his life and his rather philosophical and wonderful outlook on life have found their way into the actual grandfather figure in my book , Oscar , who becomes Sebastian ’ s best friend in my story and who helps him to find the right attitude .