About a man who goes mad about Germany, about literature, about history.
Erck Dessauer, the narrator of this novel, is young, talented and ready to become a great writer. This is not easy in Berlin in the noughties, because sworn cliques divide the power among themselves, and resentment is another word for happiness. And one in particular seems to be targeting Erck. Erck’s father was abandoned twice: once by his wife and once by the GDR. The professor from Leipzig has not gotten over either. Erck has grown up with this pain, but giving up is not his thing.
When he signs a book contract with the best publishing house in the republic, he is almost there. If only there wasn't this Hans Ulrich Barsilay with his flamboyant appearance, his beautiful ex-girlfriends, his perfect prose and his lack of conscience. The problem is that he works for the same publisher. And there are many indications that he is trying to steal Erck’s book. It's about time he got ahead of him with an intrigue.
Maxim Biller tells the story of someone who goes mad about Germany because he wants to get in at all costs: into society, into the spotlight of business, into the Valhalla of the newly reunited nation. The Bad Salute is a bitterly wicked study of opportunism, new nationalism and the things you have to be able to say again.
Maxim Biller shows how good political literature can be today. The surprisingly affectionate, stirring portrait of the young writer as monster, coward and eternal child. A literary showpiece in the tradition of Gogol and Joseph Roth.
