Reading from the novel
The great epic of our time
Sanditz, a small town on the edge of the republic. Here live old officers, civil rights activists, organ builders, tile collectors, local journalists, self-proclaimed resistance fighters, dreamers, early retirees, children, lovers, shy archivists, and the Wenzel family.
Warmly and from multiple perspectives, Lukas Rietzschel weaves the narrative of the family and the residents of Sanditz into a panorama of German stories – from the end of the GDR to the very recent past, from the occupation of the local Stasi headquarters to the struggle of a volunteer in Ukraine, from toiling on West German construction sites to the isolated island existence during the Corona epidemic.
A novel about departure and decline, the success and failure of rebellion, friendship and family in tumultuous times, about the desire for belonging and the longing for freedom.
