Literature In "PNR", life is almost too good to be true
With the novel "PNR. La Bella Vita", Sibylle Berg concludes her future trilogy. The gloomy mood of the first two volumes gives way to an attempt to think about the world in a peaceful and united way.
09.10.2025, 09:42
09.10.2025, 09:45
SDA
There is little reason for euphoria about the future. If it weren't for the young generation, who are allowed to dream and still have their future ahead of them, then everything could go on as before. In the novels "GRM" (2019) and "RCE" (2022), Sibylle Berg has painted a bleak picture of the future. In it, a group of young hackers defended themselves against the power of technology and planned a rebellion.
Successful rebellion
In "PNR", we now learn that they were successful. The World Wide Web has now been shut down, the tech billionaires have been driven out, a new network app once again allows respectful chats between people who are reorganizing their lives in solidarity. Freed from the constraints of consumption and jobs, they enjoy "La Bella Vita", as Berg's book is subtitled.
The gender-fluid "trash kid" Don, whose hatred helped instigate the rebellion, suddenly sees the world in a rosy light: "And I have no more anger," begins Don's story. Don realizes that he is no longer despised. Every morning, Don marvels at how much happiness life has in store and makes it his mission to document the new era so that it will be remembered by future generations. Don has learned nothing except martial arts.
Brave new world
"PNR" describes an alternative world to the gloomy dystopian scenarios that enjoy great popularity in literature and film. In the 93 chapter headings, Sibylle Berg sets out the rules according to which people act of their own free will and enjoy all the rights of a self-determined life. "No individual and no part of the people can claim the exercise of sovereignty", it says, for example, or "Digital tools serve co-determination, not surveillance".
Nobody misses the libertarian governments and their "no alternative" regime that has been abolished. At least in Europe, a collective serenity is spreading, which thrives even more under the Italian sun, where Don and the old GRM gang have moved.
Nevertheless, the past echoes in their minds, the "logic of devastation, moral disaster, impoverishment, obscenity, violence" that has been overcome. Don is also occasionally haunted by the fear that the good might not last, because "everything runs almost too smoothly". Don experiences for himself how difficult it is to organize life freely and casually when there is no time clock ticking and no temple of consumption beckoning to banish boredom and fill the inner emptiness with useless things.
Lurking skepticism
Sibylle Berg, who has been a member of the European Parliament since 2024, mixes optimism with lurking skepticism in her novel. What will happen if the doubters and diehards are proved right after all? Not everyone is ready for the creative chaos and mutual respect that characterize the new era.
The third volume of her trilogy casts a ghostly shadow. This is not only because Berg's narrative is still sober and often bluntly harsh. Reading her beautiful utopia makes us feel that we may find it harder to believe an inspiring confidence than the dystopian horror that corresponds to our own expectations. In this sense, "PNR" is a challenging imposition.
But despite everything, Sibylle Berg insists on hope: the beautiful life that Don wishes had never "wanted to end. "*
*This text by Beat Mazenauer, Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.
