Oh, This Void, This Unspeakable Void

After his bestseller about a childhood in the grounds of a psychiatric clinic, Joachim Meyerhoff now tells the story of how he was offered a place at drama school in Munich and moved in with his glamorous but peculiar grandparents.

His grandmother was an actress herself, and is still a true diva, his grandfather is a retired philosophy professor, a strict and daunting man. Their days are structured by ludicrous rituals in which alcohol plays a prominent part. During the day, Joachim is supposed to reveal his innermost self on stage, often spectacularly failing in the process, and in the evening he drowns his sorrows with red wine and other drinks on his grandparents' opulent sofa.

The daily change from one mad world to another, from his grandparents' grand but crazy life to the equally disturbing world of drama school with its humiliations and failures gives Joachim Meyerhoff ample material to hone his storytelling gift.

“A sweeping, moving, wise and romantic novel.” ZEIT online about Wann wird es endlich wieder so, wie es nie war