Gernot Wolfgruber

born 1944 in southern Austria, abandoned an apprenticeship as a textile printer and typesetter and worked as a manual labourer and programmer. He took his school leaving exams as an adult then studied journalism and politics in Vienna, where he was awarded his doctorate in 1979 and still lives as a full-time writer.

Gernot Wolfgruber - His Own Master

Novel

Following his time as an apprentice Bruno Melzer’s hopes for his time as His Own Master are not fulfilled. The dream of independence soon proves to be a fragile utopia. He undergoes a painful disillusion process doing monotonous work on a factory conveyor belt, then loses his remaining vestiges of freedom as a one night stand makes him a father. But along with the story of the worker Bruno, this famous novel paints a broader picture of social conditions and attitudes at the time, and remains highly relevant today.