Edin can't breathe anymore. After he loses his job in a logistics company, he ends up in disorientation. He hides the stroke of fate from his girlfriend Vanessa and escapes further and further into imaginary worlds. The impressions of his presence - the turn of the millennium is imminent - are reflected like grenades in the universe of his feelings and awaken memories of experiences in the war in Yugoslavia. Only in computer games is Edin the first-person shooter hero who has everything under control.

But will he also reach the next level in everyday life, which rolls over him like a noisy background noise?

With her second novel “Atemhaut”, for which the sound artist Rojin Sharafi composed the soundtrack, Iris Blauensteiner has created a sensitive and deeply poetic portrait of a young man who has to redefine his identity in a world full of automation processes. What is he still worth as a person when his efforts are no longer needed?

The book is available for translations from German.