Release date is 2026-01-07

Tuula Temonen

"Kuoleman voittaja" by Franz Werfel is a novel written in the early 20th century. It centers on Karl Fiala, an aging former imperial doorman in postwar Vienna, whose fragile pride and fear of destitution collide with illness, family strain, and a dubious life‑insurance promise. Likely themes include mortality, social decline, and the small illusions that sustain dignity, as Fiala struggles to secure a future for his wife and epileptic son.

The opening of the novel sketches the Fialas’ cramped life on the city’s margins: Karl clings to relics of his lost status, Marie tends the home, her caustic sister Klara hoards and bullies, and Franzl wanders jobless and ill. Pressed by poverty and terror of the poorhouse, Karl is charmed by their neighbor Schlesinger, an insurance agent, into a policy he believes will protect his family after he’s gone, a quiet hope briefly celebrated on his name day. Soon after, with a grim resolve, he sends Franzl to secure a hospital bed and admits himself; a young doctor finds high fever and cascading ailments that harden into double pneumonia. The section closes with the hospital summoning Marie, signaling that Karl’s condition has turned critical. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Finland: Arvi A. Karisto osakeyhtiö, 1928