Karl Heinz Bohrer is considered one of the most controversial German intellectuals. As the head of the literature section at the FAZ, he was contentious within his own house; as the editor of Merkur, he gained notoriety for bold themes; as a university professor, he served as a counterfigure to the left; and as a scholar, his central theory of suddenness poses a challenge to all those accustomed to bending philosophical horizons of history to their will. The unwavering expectation that the banal present transforms into the fantastic now is the driving force behind Karl Heinz Bohrer's autobiographical narrative. It unfolds in European metropolises like London and Paris, at German and American universities, traversing both essayistic and scientific terrain. And time and again, it plays out on the stage of relationships: with women, friends, companions, and opponents. Intellectual adventures alternate with erotic ones.