Land of Fathers and Traitors

Stories like these are not often told in German contemporary literature: a childhood in a Russian village in 1941, a grim love duel in post-war Prague, a literary detective story in Munich in the 90s, a father-daughter drama in New York. An intoxicating book about sad survivors, funny bohemians, mad scientists, apostatic communists, cheeky girls, dishonest writers, melancholic mothers and monstrous criminals. In 16 stories Maxim Biller writes a novel of the 20th century. His subject: How does the horror of the past still hold people in its grasp and how can this be told?