In the Austrian state of Styria lies the Helianau Institute, a boarding school for children born with a mysterious condition known as Indigo syndrome. Anyone who comes near them immediately suffers from nausea and vertigo. Clemens Setz-a fictionalized doppelgänger of the author-is a young math teacher who loses his job at the school after attempting to investigate the mysterious 'relocations' of several children. Fourteen years later, Robert, a former student, discovers a newspaper article about Setz's acquittal for the murder of an animal abuser. Could there be a connection between this story, which continues to haunt Robert, and the puzzling events of the past DeLillo-esque in its exploration of alienation and anxiety, Indigo weaves together bizarre historical anecdotes, such as Edison's electrocution of an elephant, with pop cultural marginalia and pseudoscience to create a 'literary work that makes its own laws . . . rich in dialogue and variety, amusing and anecdotal, but also brutal and unfathomable' (Der Spiegel).

Clemens J. Setz is the author of two previous novels and the winner of the Leipzig Book Fair Prize and the Ernst-Willner-Preis at the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition in 2008. He lives in Austria.