Max Malterer is a Berlin-based novelist writing near-future novels that feel close enough to touch—stories where intimate lives collide with plausible technologies, and the hardest choices are human.
His debut novel, The Human Relief Project, imagines a society being “freed” from work and follows the people deciding what remains of purpose and dignity when jobs fall away.
Before turning to fiction, Max spent years building systems in non-profit, tech, and strategy roles. That work taught him how incentives, policies, and good intentions ripple through everyday lives—lessons that now shape his storytelling.
He calls his approach Speculative Realism: character-first fiction where big ideas are carried by lived moments rather than explanation. Stories where emotion and ideas meet, and realistic what-ifs quietly reshape how we see familiar choices.
His stories aren’t predictions. They’re invitations to step into near futures, to sit with uncomfortable trade-offs, and to leave seeing at least one familiar belief a little differently.
Max lives in Berlin with his wife and writes most mornings, strong coffee in hand.
