Max Frisch traveled to the USA and Mexico for the first time in 1951. The visit to this foreign continent had a lasting impact on him and his writing. Time and again, he was drawn back to America for extended periods, which became for him the epitome of openness and vastness—contrasting with European narrowness and parochialism. From April 1981 to September 1984, he even owned an apartment in Manhattan. The volume "Amerika!" brings together texts from Frisch's diaries, novels, and stories that vividly illustrate the Swiss writer's experiences and encounters with the USA. Literary and essayistic works combine to create a panorama of America, rich in expressions of love as well as criticism. They document the keen observational skills and the acute political awareness of a great writer.