Ortsgespräch - Softcover

Illies, Florian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3453405331 ISBN 13: 9783453405332

Publisher: Heyne Verlag, 2008

Synopsis

If Florian Illies gave his generation a name in his book Generation Golf, in Local Call [Ortsgespräch] he gives a face to his native land. With penetrating observation filled with curiosity, humour and empathy, he reveals the loveable absurdities of the German hinterlands. The goal of his journey is the town of Schlitz, which with its inborn stubbornness withstood first the Kaiser, then the Russians, and finally modernity. It is a journey to the homeland which we cannot stop dreaming about. In this absurd and loveable microcosmos that Florian Illies allows his readers to wander through, we meet aunts in great number who give marmalade to each other as gifts, walk across the parking lot of the local Savings and Loan in which the best space is reserved for the director’s Opel, and on Saturday mornings around twelve hear the fire brigade’s practice siren scream its way through the narrow streets and alleys. Local Call tells of a love for country life and of the legendary twilight world of the German provinces, of the memories of the meadow around the public swimming pool and the conventions at the local carnival, of the stationery shop on the corner and the apple harvest in autumn. But certainly there are not only the dream-like images of the past but also the changes in the present – of the uncanny class reunions and the going-out-of-business sales. And about how the native land can at times withstand the pressures of competitive selection in the global village – but how it is even more hopelessly at its mercy. Press The messages that Florian Illies delivers are what could be called trendy, but his books sell like fresh, warm rolls. A guaranteed success.“ Neue Zürcher Zeitung Author Florian Illies, born in 1971 in Schlitz in the middle of Germany, now lives in Berlin, where he is the publisher of the magazine Monopol. He was at one time the manager of the Berlin section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and of the culture section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. With his bestsellers Generation Golf (2000) and Generation Golf II (2003) Florian Illies has earned the title of class speaker of his generation. He won the Ernst Robert Curtius Prize for Essay Writing in 1999

About this edition

• Publisher: Heyne Verlag
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 3453405331
• ISBN 13: 9783453405332
• Binding: Paperback