Brand

This debut novel explores the childhood of an observant boy amidst the harsh realities of village life, war-affected adults, and his first poetic impressions. In the memories of a boy who grew up in the village of Brand, family and residents come to life just as vividly as the backdrop of contemporary history and the northern German landscape. It is the 1960s, referred to by adults simply as "the time after the war." Encounters with the comical August, a sort of village fool, the first erotic feelings triggered by a teacher in the schoolyard, the great-grandmother, and the deceased grandfather shape the child, as do the spectacle of the pig ride, a threatening encounter with a stranger at the harvest festival, experiences with the supernatural while fetching milk, and the first reading of a poem by Goethe. The mother's stories about the village and its inhabitants play a special role, profoundly influencing the boy and becoming part of his first poetic experiences. Henning Ziebritzki vividly and poetically depicts striking scenes of childhood in the countryside.