Trilogy of Self and World Exploration - Martin Walser's Messmer volumes united for the first time. Alter ego, soulmate, adversary - the familiarity between Messmer and Martin Walser is akin to that between Keuner and Bertolt Brecht. How could it be otherwise after three volumes, indeed three decades of intimate dialogue? The first two Messmer books, "Messmers Gedanken" and "Messmers Reisen," were published in 1985 and 2003 by Suhrkamp Verlag. In 2013, "Messmers Momente" followed at Rowohlt. Now it has become possible to gather the three in one volume, bringing together what belongs together. Messmer, so to speak, is Martin Walser's innermost autobiography, revealing a self in conflict between self-exploration and world exploration, desire and reality, masquerade and ruthless openness: language- and knowledge-hungry, proud and resigned. The darker his mood, the more...