Arnes Nachlass

"Arne's Legacy" is the story of a boy who cannot cope with the present. It is a psychological mosaic, with its pieces gradually coming together. "They commissioned me to pack up Arne's legacy" - this is how Siegfried Lenz's novel begins. Hans, the first-person narrator, sorts through the small and large treasures left behind by Arne Hellmer, with whom he shared a room for two years. This is the same Arne Hellmer whom Hans's parents took in after a terrible accident. Arne was twelve at the time, this extraordinary boy who crammed Finnish vocabulary, wished for "Don Quixote" for his birthday, and struggled to make friends. "Like an intruder in his world, his tears, his hidden hopes," Hans sees himself and, inspired by the artifacts of the legacy, unfolds Arne's story. Against the backdrop of the Hamburg harbor and its shipyards, his life gradually takes shape, and his secrets are gently explored.