The Seriousness of Life

What do we really need in life?

Bruno van Gelderen grew up on a farm in the Lower Rhine region of Germany and ended up in Berlin in the late nineties. Instead of studying, he worked for a concert agency and gambled away his money on slot machines. Alcohol and amphetamines do the rest. After robbing a cinema box office and a nightclub, he spends two years in prison. After his release, Bruno writes about amateur football in Berlin for a small magazine and suddenly gets a job at an investment company. For the first time in his life, he has money. And for the first time he has something like a plan...

Like his hero, Ulrich Peltzer's new novel is in awe of all the offers and wisdom, the tricks and traditions with which we try to make sense of our lives. But what is important, and what is my place in this world? Peltzer's novel poses these questions, which are as simple as they are elementary, in a wonderfully calm way. Nothing is more alien to him than the great irritation of our time. And, as if in passing, he talks about the only thing that seems to matter to everyone: money.

"You are right in the middle of the Peltzer sound, which once again casts a spell." - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Alexander Košenina

"It's incredible how much resonates on these 300 pages without the novel being overloaded." - Frankfurter Rundschau, Stefan Michalzik

"Peltzer is a cunning and great storyteller." - Berliner Morgenpost, Philipp Haibach

"Ulrich Peltzer's finely observant, rhythmically interlaced novel" - WDR Lesestoff, Dirk Hohnsträter

"a really interesting novel [...] I would definitely recommend reading Ulrich Peltzer again and again and a lot" - rbb Kultur, Jörg Magenau