ALMOST NORMAL - CRISIS, FREEDOM, NEW BEGINNINGS
16 true autobiographical stories from my own life
Sixteen short stories. One life that rarely allowed itself to be planned.
ALMOST NORMAL brings together stories from childhood and boarding school, relationships and work, travel and prison, breakdowns, new beginnings and those moments when life suddenly takes a direction nobody saw coming.
Some are funny. Some are harsh. Some are absurd or unsettling.
A few manage to be all of those at once.
Each story stands on its own, but together they form the portrait of a life that has rarely followed a straight line. The tension comes from the situations themselves, not from dramatic effects, and the humour tends to appear precisely where it probably has no business being.
There are mistakes and consequences, strange encounters and unexpected turns, moments of fear and moments when the only reasonable response seems to be laughter.
Nothing has been added to make the stories more dramatic.
Life already provided enough material on its own.
ALMOST NORMAL is for readers who enjoy true stories with depth, precise observation and the occasional appearance of dry or black humour where it is least expected.
Some stories end abruptly. Others continue to resonate. Some are uncomfortable, some surprisingly funny, and some make considerably more sense in retrospect than they did while they were happening.
There is no perfectly ordered life story here, no heroic curve from failure to success and no attempt to explain what lesson should be learned from every experience.
That would have required life to cooperate a little more.
Instead, these sixteen autobiographical stories capture real situations, decisions, encounters and unexpected turns as they were experienced – directly, without embellishment and without pretending that every difficult moment eventually reveals a deeper purpose.
Because “normal” is often only a matter of perspective.
And from a sufficient distance, even the absurd can begin to look suspiciously normal.
Bernhard Christoph Lichtinger writes from lived experience – from setbacks, detours, new beginnings and encounters that never needed to be invented. His texts begin where real life leaves its mark.
If you are interested in my novels, you can find the links to the titles here.
ALMOST NORMAL – 16 SHORT STORIES
NOTHING REMAINS AS IT IS – VOLUME 2