Thomas Brussig's classic German satire,translated into English for the first time and introduced by Jonathan Franzen,is a comedic,moving account of life in East Berlin before the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
Thomas Brussig's slim novel,The Short End of the Sonnenallee,is a satire set,literally,on the Sonnenallee,the famed "boulevard of the sun" in East Berlin.
Within this boulevard lives Michael,an adolescent who faces daily ridicule whenever he steps out of his apartment building and comes into view of the observation platform on the West side. "Look,a real Zonie. Can we take your picture" Hopelessly in love with the most beautiful girl on the street,Michael is batted away in favour of the Western boys who are free to cross the border. What chance does Michael have,and how much trouble will he get into by pursuing her
Laugh-out-loud funny and unabashedly silly,Brussig's novel follows the bizarre,grotesque quotidian details of life in the German Democratic Republic. As this new translation shows,the ideas at its heart - freedom,democracy and life's fundamental hilarity - hold great relevance for today.
Publisher: HarperCollins PublishersISBN: 9780008559311Number of pages: 160Weight: 270 gDimensions: 222 x 141 x 19 mm
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'The slim episodic novel The Short End of the Sonnenallee,which was set around the mid-1980s among East Berlin adolescents and evokes their world of feelings and experiences right down to the unfussy syntax,is the purest,brightest,most tender poetry of resistance'- Die Zeit
Thomas Brussig
Visit the Thomas Brussig author pageJonathan Franzen
A highly acclaimed American novelist Jonathan Franzen is best-known for his award-winning novel The Corrections. His other works include: Purity,How to Be Alone,Strong MotionandThe End of the End of the Earth.
Visit the Jonathan Franzen author page
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