An astonishing and fantastical auto biographical novel, The System of Vienna (Das System von Wien), details Gert Jonke’s travels through Vienna by tram, reporting the bizarre and frustrating encounters he experiences as he progresses, moving not just from stop to stop, but through life as well: from innocence to disillusionment, birth to death. Slowly increasing the comic and fantastic elements in his story until they overwhelm all pretence to autobiography, culminating in a strangely touching love scene between Jonke and a caryatid.