Release: 14.05.2024

NOSTALGIA

  • An autobiographical novel about East Germany from a migrant's perspective.
  • Longlisted for the German Book Prize 2024!
  • Rights to Skizze eines Sommers and Das fabelhafte Jahr der Anarchie were sold to Greece (Kritiki).
  • Skizze eines Sommers was shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2016.

A love story across cultures and a son's longing for his mother.

In 1968, Teo, a young Laotian, arrives at Berlin's East Station. Love leads her to East Germany, far from her family. However, her new life in Potsdam, seemingly a socialist idyll, is challenging. Even her perfect German cannot dispel the daily sense of being an outsider as an Asian woman.

Fast forward to Christmas 1982: André, Teo's son, is thirteen, wishing to avoid his teacher's harassment and go unnoticed. It is not easy as a half-Laotian citizen of East Germany with a disabled younger brother. Yet, everything is fine as long as his mother remains healthy, his brother stays calm, and the mother and grandmother get along. However, a series of tragic events shake the family.

Nostalgia, perhaps André Kubiczek's most personal book, delves into his relationship with his mother, who tried to find a home in a foreign land. It offers a unique perspective on life in East Germany from a migrant's viewpoint. This novel is a poignant and warm exploration of familiarity, foreignness, and love across cultures and prejudices.

"This light, heavy book breaks your heart." Der Tagesspiegel on Der perfekte Kuss

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  • Publisher: Rowohlt Berlin
  • Release: 14.05.2024
  • 400 pages
  • ISBN: 978-3-7371-0181-3
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Nostalgia

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Dagmar Morath

André Kubiczek

André Kubiczek, born in 1969, lives in Berlin. In 2002, his highly praised novel Junge Talente was published, followed by Die Guten und die Bösen in 2003. In 2007, André Kubiczek was awarded the Candide Prize. Skizze eines Sommers (2016) was shortlisted for the German Book Prize. His most recent works include Komm in den totgesagten Park und schau (2018), Straße der Jugend (2020), and Der perfekte Kuss (2022).