Marzahn, mon amour

Katja Oskamp is in her mid-forties when life becomes dull for her. The child has left home, her husband is ill, and the writing she has dedicated herself to until now has turned into a field of disappointments. So she does something that would be seen as a failure by others: she becomes a podiatrist in Berlin-Marzahn, once the largest prefabricated housing area in East Germany. And she writes down what she hears – stories like that of Mr. Paulke, one of the first residents of the neighborhood forty years ago, Mrs. Guse, who is retreating from the world in reverse, or Mr. Pietsch, the former official with the checkered flat cap. Stories full of humanity and humor, masterpieces about humanity itself – seen from the perspective of their feet.