Ursula Keller, the wife of Austrian Ambassador Nicolaus Keller, hosted an afternoon of cake and coffee with Marianne Jungmaier, an Austrian fiction writer. The author of six books, Ms Jungmaier read excerpts from her acclaimed novel The Cake Protocol and a selection of poems.

Ms Keller introduced the author, saying: “Marianne and I met some eight years ago when she was just starting her career. I’m very proud to introduce her now as an upcoming author. You will get a sense of her work from her reading.”

Ms Jungmaier said: “I’m here for three weeks and I’m trying to discover as much as I can in that time because I am going to write about Pakistan also. The Cake Protocol is my only book about Austria – everything else is about different countries.”

She added that she would read from her novel, which “shows you a lot about the Austrian mentality and the Austrian way of dealing with or not dealing with problems.”

Explaining the title, she said, “It’s called The Cake Protocol because in Austria we tend to eat cakes instead of talking about problems and we have beautiful cakes.”

The reading was followed by an assortment of delicious cakes and coffee over which the audience could discuss the work with the author.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2020