Marc Elsberg (born 3 January 1967, in
Vienna, real name ''Marcus Rafelsberger'') is a bestselling Austrian author. His works have been published by
Blanvalet Verlag of the
Penguin Random House publishing group since 2012. They have been translated into numerous languages, sold several million copies worldwide, and made into a series and a film.
Life and education
Marc Elsberg was born in Vienna in 1967. After graduating in 1985, he began
studying industrial design
Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...
at the
University of Applied Arts Vienna. Elsberg worked as a strategy consultant and creative director in the
advertising industry, among others in Vienna and
Hamburg agencies. He received awards for his work from the Creative Club Austria, among others. At the same time, he began to create a column for the Austrian
daily newspaper ''
Der Standard'' under the title "No ad by Marcus Rafelsberger". Since 2021, Marc Elsberg has been teaching "Storytelling" at the University of Applied Arts Vienna as a
university lecturer
Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct res ...
.
Career
Marc Elsberg made his literary debut in 2000, still under his civil name Marcus Rafelsberger, with the
satirical novel
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
''Saubermann'' (''Mr. Clean'') published by ''Espresso-Verlag'' in
Berlin, about a detergent's fictional advertising character becoming president. In 2004, Emons Verlag in
Cologne published ''Das Prinzip Ter''z a crime novel in which the eponymous detective must solve the death of the head of an advertising agency while becoming a murderer himself. Other works under his civil name were ''Menschenteufel'' (2009) and ''Wienerherz'' (2011).
In 2012, Elsberg achieved greater fame with the thriller
Blackout – Tomorrow will be too late with the scenario of a widespread
collapse
Collapse or its variants may refer to:
Concepts
* Collapse (structural)
* Collapse (topology), a mathematical concept
* Collapsing manifold
* Collapse, the action of collapsing or telescoping objects
* Collapsing user interface elements
** ...
of the
power supply and its consequences. The book was predominantly positively reviewed; among other things the
Handelsblatt called it a "grippingly narrated thriller". judged that the plot was "well researched and realistically portrayed". In 2013, it was among the
iBookstore's "10 books you have to read this summer", and ''Blackout'' was also on Spiegel's bestseller list for several years. At its peak, the book reached second place there in July 2013. The novel has sold over 1.8 million copies in German-speaking countries alone. It has been translated into over a dozen
languages. Also, ''Blackout'' received Germany's 2012 award in the entertainment category. This is awarded by a jury of renowned science journalists on the initiative of ''Bild der Wissenschaft''. The book was filmed for a television series by Joyn/
Sat.1
Sat.1 is a German free-to-air television channel that is a part of the ProSiebenSat.1 Media Group.
It is considered the first privately owned television network in Germany, having been launched in January 1984 as ''PKS'' ''(Programmgesellschaf ...
starring
Moritz Bleibtreu.
In 2014 Elsberg's sixth novel entitled was published, dealing with
Big data
Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...
and
data protection. The title reached second place on the Spiegel bestseller list. and was named Science Book of the Year in the "Entertainment" category. Elsberg was the first author to receive the award twice.
The Guardian called it "a thriller with its finger on the zeitgeist".
WDR secured the rights for its film adaptation.
Heike Makatsch played the leading role.
In 2016, the seventh novel, titled , was published dealing with the subject of
genetics. It is an "exciting and educational scientific thriller" that combines scientific details with
ethical issues
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...
. This work also became a bestseller. There are translated editions of ''Helix'' as well.
In 2019, his eighth novel was published, in which Elsberg dealt with economic concepts, findings, and theories and the consideration of whether comprehensive cooperation between economic partners and
economic sectors would lead to broader
prosperity
Prosperity is the flourishing, thriving, good fortune and successful social status. Prosperity often produces profuse wealth including other factors which can be profusely wealthy in all degrees, such as happiness and health.
Competing notion ...
. He drew on scientific work on
ergodicity economics by a group led by Ole Peters at the London Mathematical Laboratory, supported by Nobel laureates
Murray Gell-Mann and
Ken Arrow
Kenneth Joseph Arrow (23 August 1921 – 21 February 2017) was an American economist, mathematician, writer, and political theorist. He was the joint winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with John Hicks in 1972.
In economics ...
, among others (
afterword). "Greed" reached third place on
Spiegel's bestseller list.
Works
as ''Marcus Rafelsberger''
*
*
*
*
as ''Marc Elsberg''
*
*
*
*
**''Greed''. Black Swan, 2020. ISBN 9781784163471
*
Notes and references
External links
*
Marc Elsbergofficial website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elsberg, Marc
21st-century pseudonymous writers
Writers from Vienna
People from Baden bei Wien
1967 births
Crime fiction writers
Living people