In 1978, she published her first novel
Die Schwerkraft der Verhältnisse (The Weight of Things), for which she was awarded that year's Robert Walser Prize. The publication of this novel marked the beginning of a massive, multi-volume project referred to as
Die Festung (The Fortress). This project was based on the history of the
First and
Second Austrian Republics. She would work on it for the rest of her life. She published her second novel and the first volume of this project in 1980 as
Das Kind der Gewalt und die Sterne der Romani (The Child of Violence and the Stars of the
Romani). This complex novel sold poorly, leading her publisher to drop her. She next published
Dessen Sprache du nicht verstehst (Whose Language You Do Not Understand) in 1986. The 3,300-plus page novel was noted for its complexity and linguistic experimentation. The work was received with mostly hostile reviews at the time. She continued to push the linguistic boundaries of German with the publication in the 1990s of two additional volumes of
Die Festung under the names
Naturgemäß I and
II. == Death and legacy ==