Three Contemporary German Novellas: Lenz, A Runaway Horse, The Sunday I Became World Champion

by Peter Schneider (Editor), Martin Walser, Friedrich Christian Delius

'A Runaway Horse' by Martin Walser revolves around two friends, long separated, who meet on vacation. One is an idle teacher; the other an optimistic go-getter. The teacher discovers that one cannot avoid dealing head-on with life any better than one can reason with a runaway horse.

Peter Schneider's 'Lenz', which takes its title from the melancholy novella by Georg Buchner, is about the life of a young intellectual in 1960s East Germany. This is its first publication in English.

'The Sunday I Became World Champion', by Friedrich Christian Delius, portrays a postwar German village through the eyes of a preacher's son, a boy whose stutter is helped by the success of the national soccer team.

Series: German Library, v. 88.

324 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Peter Schneider is a German novelist. His novel Lenz, published in 1973, had become a cult text for the Left, capturing the feelings of those disappointed by the failure of their utopian revolt. Since then, Peter Schneider has written novels, short stories and film scripts, that often deal with the fate of members of his generation. Other works deal with the situation of Berlin before and after German reunification. Schneider is also a major Essayist; having moved away from the radicalism of 1968, his work now appears predominantly in bourgeois publications.

Reviews

[Denise DeRocher · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best novellas I've read since Stephen Crane's works!!!! WOW