REALTIMES

From the classroom to the digital playing field – a social novel which combines zeitgeist and narrative tradition in new ways.

An elite boarding school in Vienna, housed within what used to be the Habsburgs’ summer residence. The form tutor is an old-fashioned and despotic man. What could anyone hope to learn here that they could actually use in real life? Till Kokorda has no time for the canon or for this snobbish environment. His passion is gaming – specifically the real-time strategy game “Age of Empires 2”. After his father dies, Till’s hobby becomes a necessity. Although nobody at the school knows it, Till is an online celebrity at the age of 15 – the youngest Top-10 player in the world. But how real is this kind of happiness? In 2020, his final year at the school, nothing goes the way Till had expected it to, either at school or in life.
Tonio Schachinger’s novel moves between almost-universal experiences and places that most of us are unfamiliar with. At the same time his writing is surprising, his humour unpretentious and accessible: Echtzeitalter is an example and proof of the timeless power of a good story. And a great social novel.

„A witty, coolly analytical, insightful story of young people in the 21st century ... An outstanding contemporary novel.“ Frankfurter Sonntagszeitung

„Schachinger writes with a rarely fine, at the same time macabre humor, sentences and school years flow along as light as a feather ... a remarkable piece of literature.“ Süddeutsche Zeitung