Today we talk about Foresight, a book by Markus Michael published with our publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author Markus Michael to get to know him better, what prompted him to the writing of his book of Foresight, as well as how he felt to see his book published.
Below you can find our interview. Take a seat and enjoy your reading!!!
- What prompted you to the writing of your book?
First, it was my interest in history. I have spent my entire professional life working in wars, which allowed me to observe history in the making. Alongside this, I have read voraciously—history books and biographies alike. In 2024, I published a book on counterfactual history, The Unwritten Chronicles of Western Civilisation’s Greatest Confrontations — An Imaginary Walk through an Alternate History. In it, I explored different outcomes of twelve key battles in European history and found that, beyond the battles themselves, underlying political and socio-economic currents were equally decisive for long-term outcomes. Foresight takes the reader on another journey through history, but this time by showing how events actually unfolded. As a kind of ‘anti-Orlando’, the protagonist travels backward in time, starting from the future and spanning nearly three centuries. At each stop, he lives a life for a while, facing challenges and interacting with people of the period, including historical figures. He is hosted by George Sand, translates Germaine de Staël’s opus magnum, and is nearly executed alongside his master, Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. My aim was to paint vivid portraits of these eras, woven together with the adventures of the protagonist—whom I personally think of as ‘Orlando’, although he adopts different names at each stop. Orlando also evolves during his retrograde journey, adding a coming-of-age dimension to the novel. In short, I want to take the reader on a walk through history that is both entertaining and intellectually demanding. In this novel, I am simultaneously the author, narrator, and protagonist. My life has taken countless twists and turns across much of the globe; had these paths been different, I would each time have lived an alternate life. In this sense, Foresight is also autobiographical, portraying lives I did not live—but could have lived. Not for nothing do the plates at the beginning of each chapter—and the cover—depict myself in these consecutive lives.
- What characteristics your audience should have to appreciate your book?
Again, Foresight addresses a reader who has some knowledge of, and an interest in, history. The novel leads the reader through a handful of historical periods and many more locations, all vividly rendered and closely intertwined with the protagonist’s adventures and fate—for instance, when Orlando freelances as a reporter during the short-lived Second Balkan War at the beginning of the twentieth century. The book is written for a reader who has the capacity—and even the pleasure—to feel at home while travelling through time and space by following Orlando’s destiny. The bar is therefore set slightly higher than in a standard historical novel.
- What messages did you want to convey with your book?
There is no overt message in Foresight, except perhaps the idea that the here and now can also be a matter of choice—Orlando choosing where, and when, he wants to live. Despite his quest to get to the bottom of a family curse, a bohemian laissez-faire, a lightness of being, permeates the story. In the novel, the reader encounters a number of people simply getting on with their lives as best they can, individuals with whom the protagonist interacts on a deeply personal level. Well-known historical figures who left their mark on their eras also come to life: the Portuguese queen Carlota Joaquina in her Brazilian exile; Saloth Sar in his jungle camp, years before he reinvented himself as Pol Pot and unleashed the Killing Fields on Cambodia; and the Belgian princess Charlotte, who went from young Empress of Mexico to spending another six decades living under the shadow of madness. By animating these and other figures, the novel draws the reader into each period and place through the protagonist’s eyes and emotions.Orlando is gay, in contrast to a literary tradition shaped by heteronormativity. Once this point is established, however, it becomes largely irrelevant: his struggle for survival, his pursuit of a quest, and his loves and passions are no different from anyone else’s. This is the novel’s second, and equally important, point.
- How did it feel to see your book published?
Seeing my second book—my first novel—in print is, of course, a thrilling experience. A great deal of research went into it, but once that work was done, the writing itself was pure joy. My friends are still busy reading my history book—whose original title, and the one used in the German translation, is Magnolia in Zurich: An Unusual Walk Through Our History—so they haven’t yet had time to read Foresight and share their feedback.
- Are you working on a new writing project you can tell us about?
Only a few months after the publication of Foresight, I am releasing, with the same editor, Hanna and the Final Truth: a short theological tale centred on the religion of the Little Green Monster. This belief system began as a playful invention for my children—a light-hearted counterweight to traditional religions, which, after all, tend to benefit most from strength in numbers. In the 1930s, my then young mother Hanna spends her holidays in the Swiss mountains, accompanying her painter uncle on outdoor excursions. It is during one of these walks that she encounters the Little Green Monster, a curious and untamed being, a remnant of a time when nature pulsed with spirit and meaning. Through irreverent dialogues and theological debates, Hanna and the Little Green Monster create their own gospel—a charming and philosophical adventure that blends fantasy, humour, and reflection on the world, faith, and freedom. Europe Books will also publish my autobiography, In Passing, in early 2026. This memoir intertwines my personal history with broader cultural and historical reflection. Rather than unfolding chronologically, it takes the form of a constellation of short chapters, snapshots, and thematic fragments, mirroring the nature of memory itself: selective, vivid, sometimes abrupt, yet always resonant. The resulting mosaic reveals the richness and complexity of a life still very much ‘a work in progress’. Combining memory, history, travel, and introspection, the book moves between lightness and gravity, historical context and personal anecdote. Its diverse settings and cultural perspectives offer a global lens on the cultural, political, and social dynamics that shape our world. Through a succession of meaningful moments, it traces a journey across cultures and countries.
Europe Books thanks the author Markus Michael once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside him on the editorial path that led to the publication of his book Foresight. We wish him the best of luck for his book and for his future works.
To you, my dear reader, may the vicissitudes of the main character fascinate you and can be food for thought for you and for your life.
So, my dear reader, all I have to say is to enjoy your reading!
Your Editor!