Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee

Thomas Brussig's great novel about growing up in a dictatorship - with an afterword by Jonathan Franzen

At the shorter end of Sonnenallee, right next to the Berlin Wall, lives Micha Kuppisch. When he steps out of his front door, he hears the calls of western school classes from the observation platform: "Look, a real Zoni!" But Micha has a different concern: Miriam. She is the most beautiful girl around, but unfortunately already taken. Thomas Brussig narrates with wit how, in the shadow of the wall, the sun also shone. Miriam, Micha, and his friends love and laugh, play tricks and dream. They listen to Jimi Hendrix, fish love letters out of the death strip, and inventively create their own world. Only later do they realize how incredibly funny they were.