Josef Haslinger is an Austrian writer, playwright, and essayist. Winner of many prestigious literary awards. The novel “The Vienna Ball” was published in 1995, and soon a film was made based on it. And indeed, this dynamic, intense, exciting prose seems to have been specially created for a vivid film adaptation. The hero of the novel, a famous television journalist, saw the death of his own son live. And now he is busy investigating a terrible tragedy - the death of hundreds of people during the annual social ball at the Vienna Opera, which was broadcast in real time to dozens of countries. Who was interested in this tragedy - some extremist organizations, politicians, police, and maybe funds mass media? This tough book now reads like a prophecy of catastrophes on live television, be it September 11 in New York or the capture and storming of Nord-Ost.