The parents are dead, having lost their lives in a car accident. Their funeral, to which Stefan Zell hastily returns from vacation, feels to him like a bad dream. On top of that, he is also confronted with Hanna, with whom living together has become questionable since she insisted on having the child he does not want. On his way to her, he takes a detour, and where he ends up is unexpected. But he has longed for it, because this is what we all dream of: the highest intensity of experience, of flawless happiness. Yet, the closer Stefan Zell gets to the blinding light, the closer he also gets to its searing heat. "The Proximity of the Sun" tells of dangers that seem to dissolve in brightness and of triumphs that leave burn marks behind. First published in 1985, it is Gernot Wolfgruber's last book: the furious conclusion of a literary work that is unparalleled. What has appeared here and there since then were excerpts from a novel in progress: one that hardly anyone can expect after reading "The Proximity of the Sun.".