Now available as a paperback

Nominated for the German Book Prize

This is the last time Richard Sparka travels to Schmogrow in the Oderbruch with his partner Klara and their children Karl and Ricarda. The house where he spent his childhood vacations is being sold after the death of its charmingly eccentric owner. In memory of the endless summer days he spent there, Richard wants to continue his eternal struggle against the uglification of the world and seeks the happiness of Schmogrow. However, the deeper he delves into the past of his childhood paradise and the people who created it, the more painfully he realizes that idyll and abyss have always been inseparable, and that perhaps therein lies its beauty.

“A master of remembrance, unmatched in contemporary German literature.”
Deutschlandfunk.