Children of the City

• A novel about a lifelong if tumultuous friendship and an attempt at liberation through theater
• English sample translation by Jo Heinrich available

Children of the City is a novel about three dissimilar friends trying to express themselves and not lose each other in the process. All three carry their own personal damages, but with each other they find belonging, consolation – and inspiration. For what they have in common is their love of theater, of writing and directing. Olga Bach writes about this deep and conflicted friendship with quietly sly humor and a lucid eye.

Theater director Orhan and playwright Irina are asked to develop a performance that explores the multiple identities of Berlin’s post-reunification generation. Quick easy money, they think to themselves, and ask their friend Maria to join them. The three of them met at the theater as teenagers, roamed the streets of the rapidly changing city and realized their first performances together.

Now, writing the texts for the performance, Irina delves into their family histories and reflects on the beginning of their friendship. While her eccentric father begins to lose his memory, the project becomes increasingly complicated as it forces her, Orhan and Maria to confront their own biographies, exposing truths along the way that some of them would rather keep private.