Professor Bodewig wanted to discover new territory, and it seemed as though his wish might just be fulfilled. Bodewig, a political scientist at Dahlem University, has unexpectedly inherited a property in Vienna. He asks his wife to take a look at the house and to get the renovations underway. Although it is highly unlikely that he will be able to transfer his job, he seems to be considering a move to Vienna. His apartment in Berlin is almost empty, the furniture in storage, the house in Vienna is ready – but still Bodewig does not arrive. Something seems to prevent him from leaving his old lodgings. Van der Velde promised to marry Sybille. They have been together for so long now, but the computer specialist keeps delaying this last formality. Instead he wants Sybille to fly with him to Leptis Magna in Libya, to see the famous ruins. Meanwhile he keeps disappearing, with ever-increasing haste, on secret journeys of his own. Sybille has no idea what he is up to, but does get one little hint: when he comes home, she finds fine, red sand trickling out of his suitcase. Two masterful novellas about human crises and grand delusions, about the balance between clinging to the known and the loss of the self, about the fear of involvement and the maelstrom of self-disintegration. Novellas of irritating beauty and almost metaphysical transparency.