Liefern

Economics Club Award
Laudatory Speech, Reading, and Discussion
Award Recipient: Tomer Gardi; Laudatory Speech: Klaus Kastberger

This year’s Péter Horváth Literature Prize goes to Tomer Gardi, an author born in Israel and living in Berlin. In his novel *Liefern*, he traces the paths of those who bear the burden of the “Wish-fulfillment” of the platform economy. In the digitally connected global village, there are no taverns, but instead all kinds of delivery services. On bicycles, e-bikes, motorcycles, or scooters, a new subproletariat—laden with cube-shaped backpacks—rushes through the cities for a pittance to satisfy the appetites of the privileged. Tomer Gardi reveals facets of contemporary everyday life, ranging from the startup boom to the shadow economy, encompassing all levels of sub- and sub-sub-entrepreneurs. No work can illustrate the scope of an economic prize more precisely than this novel; at the same time, it captures in its own aesthetic form just how inescapably our cheerful, consumerist everyday life is shaped by global debt dynamics.