'Will you grant me grace?': Peter Waterhouse's Poetics of Possible Worlds in Die Auswandernden (2016)

Peter Waterhouse's novel Die Auswandernden (2016) tells of the precarious situation of an asylum seeker in Vienna, but at the same time also of books and the art of reading. It links the reality of political events with the poetic dimension of the wandering and reading protagonists. Although based on political fact, it uses these to think with rather than representing or portraying them. Alternative possible worlds can be discerned in the respectful, attentive encounters between individuals it narrates, in particular in their exploration of language (translanguaging). Die Auswandernden is an appeal for education to protect freedom of thought. The article combines narratological analysis with poetological and linguistic considerations.