With the reissue of this long out-of-print work, one of the most fascinating autobiographies of the 20th century is finally accessible again to the German-speaking readership. In a masterful and disturbing narrative, Perec's childhood fantasies of the utopian island W, where all of life is dedicated to sports, intertwine with memories of the Holocaust and the early loss of his parents, creating a nightmarish vision that leaves no one untouched. Two intersecting narratives shape the structure of the book: the fantasy world that Perec invented as a 13-year-old boy, and an autobiographical account that attempts to trace a chronological family history. The struggle for personal, intimate memories in the haze of an unbearable past.