Two Germanys and two boys, almost born at the same time, just not in the same state. David Wagner grows up in the West, not far from the federal capital Bonn, while Jochen Schmidt grows up in the East: in Berlin, the capital of the GDR. They play in the apartment, in the garden, between high-rise buildings or on construction sites, waiting for the television program to finally start. They ride bikes with friends, steal candy from their siblings, and argue with them in the back seat of the family car over the best spot. They dream of the national football team, practice piano again, and hear at school that "over there" the world is worse. David Wagner, born in 1971 in Andernach on the Rhine, has published the novels My Night Blue Pants and Four Apples, as well as the short story collection What Is Missing, the prose book The Child Speaks, and the essay collections What a World.