Fame

This short novel by German/Austrian author Kehlmann (Measuring the World) is a literary polyptych, a collection of stories that could be appreciated independently but actually are centered on the main episode, "Replying to the Abbess." In this story, the world's most famous self-help writer, who hasn't seen his children from his second marriage in more than a year, is amused that the United Nations wants to give him a prestigious award; he writes a truly offensive letter to a nun, contradicting everything he's published and denying all hope, goodness, and beauty. Reviewing the slums outside of Rio de Janeiro from his penthouse, arms outstretched like the nearby Christ the Redeemer statue, he imagines that he could become a truly great man if he dashes the hopes of his followers by shooting himself in the head with the pistol he regularly points at himself.