This novel tells the story of a private scholar and adventurer who after suffering a serious accident comes out of a coma. Many different people handle his body, pour liquids into thin transparent tubes, compare and adjust scales. 'He felt he was returning to reality, felt the pain that accompanies being inside one's own body again, he felt gravity and all the troubles he would have to go through so that his body could again cope with all the necessities of vegetative life.'

Based on his knowledge as a physician the author describes his hero's return to the real world as a journey through various layers of consciousness, where dreams and sensual experience mingle with fantasies. At times he sees himself as someone looking for God, then as God's vicar on Earth – still at others as the anti-Christ. He experiences all the great themes of human history, in a stage-like setting.

About the author:

Walter R. Wolf, M.D., was born in Vienna in 1949 of Slavic-Jewish background. He studied Medicine in Vienna. He worked at various psychiatric institutions where he was confronted with the lack of precision in diagnostics. He later worked as a cosmetic surgeon and dermatologist. Growing unease convinced him to give up his job. What followed were attempts at writing: Drafts, and essays of usually philisophical and theological content. 'The Awakening' is his first novel.