How can one become a better father than one's own?
Michael Lentz remembers the eerie years of the old Federal Republic in Homeward. Between apple pie and anger, between matchbox cars and metaphysics, a West German small-town childhood plays out in his new novel. The father's hand slips regularly, or they meet wordlessly in the house. There is plenty to eat, and the mother keeps order and a guilty conscience. The memories are interrupted by the voice of a child who only knows the old Federal Republic from hearsay and can no longer do much with all the old stuff.
Since Mother Dies, Michael Lentz has been telling stories with virtousity of origin and family, of childhood, love and death. Homeward goes a decisive step further: the son has now become a father himself. The past childhood is still powerful and present. But the present is about the voice of the next generation.
"an extraordinarily remarkable book." - Frankfurter Rundschau, Stefan Michalzik
"Where the author brings his intelligence into suspension, he succeeds in creating images in which intellect and emotion enter into a union" - Süddeutsche Zeitung, Meike Feßmann
"many outstanding sentences." - Die Zeit, Berrit Dießelkämper
"really impressive book" - Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Jörg Plath
"A cleverly theorised yet richly imagined story about childhood and parenthood." - Welt am Sonntag, Richard Kämmerlings
