German Book Club Reads Joachim Meyerhoff

At the February German Book Club meeting, we will discuss the novel Alle Toten Fliegen Hoch (Teil 1: Amerika) by Joachim Meyerhoff (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2013. ISBN: 978-3-462-04436-2. 9,99 €).

From the first page the reader falls under the spell of Meyerhoff’s teenage hero, who sets out to get one of the most coveted placements with an American guest family.  But at the selection interview in Hamburg he becomes painfully conscious of the differences between him and the worldlier big-city teenagers.  Thus he portrays himself in the placement questionnaire as a modest, nature-loving and strictly religious small-town boy, and soon finds himself in Laramie, Wyoming, with a view of the prairie, horses, and the Rocky Mountains.  At first any looming culture shock fails to materialize, the class schedule is rich in variety, and the basketball season is head of him, but then a call from home forces him to return to his family in Northern Germany—in a state of grief, that he can only confront with a renewed departure to America.

Kindly RSVP via email to circulation@newyork.goethe.org if you plan to attend.