Wie kann sich das richtige Leben nur so falsch anfühlen?
ALEXA HENNIG VON LANGE
KAMPFSTERNE/ STARFIGHTERS
A Novel, ca. 224 pp., Autumn 2018
The drama of a gifted child are its parents
A tragic comic story about mothers, fathers and children from good back-grounds
How can real life feel so wrong?
1985 – It’s a crazy, hot summer in which Boris Becker wins Wimbledon, four passenger planes crash in one month, all great rock stars sing at Live Aid for the hungering Africa and three families threaten to break apart in an estate on the edge of the city.
Ulla and Rainer. Rita and Georg. Ella and Bernard. Three couples. Mothers and fa-thers. Their houses are filled with Danish designs, they go to the South of France on holiday, they send their children to cello lessons and IQ tests. They try to prove themselves to be enlightened and interested people that lead the right sort of life. Where could this be easier than in the carefree 1980s in Germany? And why doesn’t it work?
Alexa Hennig von Lange tells the stories of a generation of parents who wanted a more liberal life. The ideologies that they followed. The love that connected them. The fears that they had. The childhood that they wanted for their sons and daughters. The mistakes that they made. The decisions that their children made.
Is there any place you can fail more profoundly that in your children’s memories?
»Simone de Beauvoir got it bad – this feminist. Clever woman. Philosopher. Not ‘clever’ but cultured! She was cultured, but in my opinion, she was completely brain-less as a person. The things she put up with from that pathetic Sartre guy! How can anyone submit to a man like that unless they’re my mother? «
KAMPFSTERNE/ STARFIGHTERS
A Novel, ca. 224 pp., Autumn 2018
The drama of a gifted child are its parents
A tragic comic story about mothers, fathers and children from good back-grounds
How can real life feel so wrong?
1985 – It’s a crazy, hot summer in which Boris Becker wins Wimbledon, four passenger planes crash in one month, all great rock stars sing at Live Aid for the hungering Africa and three families threaten to break apart in an estate on the edge of the city.
Ulla and Rainer. Rita and Georg. Ella and Bernard. Three couples. Mothers and fa-thers. Their houses are filled with Danish designs, they go to the South of France on holiday, they send their children to cello lessons and IQ tests. They try to prove themselves to be enlightened and interested people that lead the right sort of life. Where could this be easier than in the carefree 1980s in Germany? And why doesn’t it work?
Alexa Hennig von Lange tells the stories of a generation of parents who wanted a more liberal life. The ideologies that they followed. The love that connected them. The fears that they had. The childhood that they wanted for their sons and daughters. The mistakes that they made. The decisions that their children made.
Is there any place you can fail more profoundly that in your children’s memories?
»Simone de Beauvoir got it bad – this feminist. Clever woman. Philosopher. Not ‘clever’ but cultured! She was cultured, but in my opinion, she was completely brain-less as a person. The things she put up with from that pathetic Sartre guy! How can anyone submit to a man like that unless they’re my mother? «
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Alexa Hennig von Lange
Alexa Hennig von Lange, born in 1973, became one of the most successful authors of her generation with her debut novel ›Relax‹ in 1997. This was...
Alexa Hennig von Lange, born in 1973, became one of the most successful authors of her generation with her debut novel ›Relax‹ in 1997. This was followed by numerous other novels, stories, plays and YA books. DuMont published the novels ›Risiko‹ (2007) and ›Peace‹ (2009). Alexa Hennig von Lange was awarded the German YA Literature Prize in 2001. She lives in Berlin with her husband and five children.