Fiction | Fiction
Against the World
Jan Brandt
Set in the East Frisia region of Germany in the mid-1970s, this novel tells the story of the nominal heir to a drugstore dynasty, and his struggle to free himself from the violence of small-town life. A delicate, secretive boy with too much imagination and too few opportunities, Daniel Kuper becomes the target of outrage and fear when strange phenomena convulse the town: snowfall in summer, inexplicable corn circles, a dead boy under the wheels of a train, swastikas crudely daubed on walls. Fingers point, and they single out Kuper. Jan Brandt’s debut is an epic account of growing up an outsider.
German original title
Köln, Dumont Buchverlag 2011
928 pages