Botho Strauss tells stories he has never shared before: about his childhood and youth in the 1940s and 50s, about Naumburg and Bad Ems, the places where he grew up, and about his early, formative memories. With this book, he returns to a completely new aspect of his writing: the tone of remembrance, the affirmation of one's own origins. Youth is the time when the future still lies ahead; now Strauss allows a long-past present to come alive again. Above all, it is the father whose image becomes increasingly vivid, lovingly portrayed yet without self-deception. Botho Strauss's "Herkunft" is the concentrated, rich work of a great storyteller from Germany.