Menschen neben dem Leben

Following the spectacular literary rediscovery of "The Traveler," Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz's first novel is now available in paperback for the first time. Set in 1920s Berlin, "People Next to Life" portrays the small people who, after war and the Great Depression, have nothing left to laugh about yet continue to celebrate life.

The protagonists in Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz's debut novel do not have it easy. They are the true losers of the economic crisis: war veterans, beggars, prostitutes, the insane. Yet every evening, they are drawn to the Fröhlicher Waidmann. Some come to drink, others for music and dance. They are driven by the longing for a few carefree hours before the gray reality rises again the next morning. But then, the wife of the blind Sonnenberg suddenly dances with Grissmann, who is trying to hook a woman at the Waidmann and underestimates the wrath of the cuckolded husband. Thus, the tragedy unfolds in the Fröhlicher Waidmann until new romances are found, enough beer and peppermint schnapps are served, and the next morning dawns. Through a magnifying glass, the then just twenty-two-year-old author dissects the Berlin ragged proletariat of the interwar years. "A tremendously gripping rediscovery." Hildegard Elisabeth Keller, SRF "People Next to Life" is a masterpiece that belongs alongside Alfred Döblin's "Berlin Alexanderplatz." "Boschwitz shows people on their way down, but before they really hit rock bottom, they live in the updraft of hope." Paul Jandl, Neue Zürcher Zeitung "A writer of enormous insight and talent." Financial Times.