Heavily lit

In his new novel "Schwer erleuchtet," the successful book author Dieter Bednarz tells a humorous story about a fun-loving Buddhist monk and an ordinary couple from Hamburg, about a clash of cultures, about Buddhism and capitalism, about being and appearances and the secret of a fulfilled life. As with Dieter Bednarz's earlier books, the author's biography provided the decisive inspiration for this: Like the novel's characters, Dieter Bednarz and his wife Esther married during an Ayurvedic vacation in Sri Lanka, including the wedding recitation of a Buddhist monk in his temple. And like Maya and Daniel in "Schwer erleuchtet," Esther and Dieter invited the monk to Hamburg to thank him - an offer that the venerable man later took up - for a whole three months. In "Schwer erleuchtet," the author has spun this true incident into a winkingly funny novel with many clever insights about holding on and letting go, about wanting to have and not being able to get, about mindfulness and the really important things in life.