Walter Schmidt has lived his whole life within the narrow, comfortable confines of traditional gender roles. He has made it to retirement without learning how to fry an egg or use a vacuum cleaner, and he has lived at an emotional distance from his now grown children, letting his wife Barbara attend to their needs. He’s always been able to count on Barbara for everything. But, when she can’t get up from bed one morning, everything changes.
With biting humor and great warmth, Alina Bronsky writes about how this man called Walter, nearing the end of his life, is suddenly forced to reinvent himself as a caregiver, a homemaker, and an attentive parent—everything he has avoided being for his entire life. In this bittersweet and darkly funny portrait of a marriage and a man, age-old certainties
and calcified patterns of behavior fall away to reveal something entirely unexpected underneath.
An unforgettable novel by one of Germany's most unpredictable and beloved novelists.
