From Ruins

Young Man in Times of Crisis

  • A young man in crisis struggles to adapt to a new social code when he leaves his housing estate for university 
  • For readers of Édouard Louis, Olivia Wenzel, Darren McGarvey’s Poverty Safari and Katriona O’Sullivan’s Poor
  • English sample translations available
  • Topics: Post-reunification identity, toxic masculinity, substance abuse, trauma, class relations

A book about what comes after you leave a depressing housing estate and a chaotic youth behind and the question: can you really escape your class and your past?

Hendrik has moved from Stralsund to Berlin, from a housing estate full of East German Neo-Nazis to a campus full of left-wing, alternative West German middle-class kids. In the news: bank bailouts and austerity; in his inbox, texts from new acquaintances who seem somewhat interested, yet expect something different from a friend or partner than what Hendrik has to offer: a pumped-up upper body, a chaotic post-reunification past he would rather forget, and the constant feeling of living on a battlefield.

Trapped between the hyper-masculine, violent value system of his youth and a baffling new bourgeois reality, Hendrik falls into a downward spiral of grueling retail shifts, heavy drinking, and alienation. Was moving here a huge mistake after all?

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Sample Translations
  • Publisher: Kiepenheuer&Witsch
  • Release: 01.10.2026
  • ISBN: 978-3-462-00866-1
  • 272 Pages
  • Author: Hendrik Bolz
Buchcover von From Ruins: Junger Mann in Krisenzeiten
Hendrik BolzFrom Ruins
Portrait von Hendrik Bolz
© Greta Baumann
Hendrik Bolz

Hendrik Bolz was born in Leipzig in 1988 and raised in Stralsund. He achieved widespread acclaim as a lyricist and rapper for the band Zugezogen Maskulin. His literary memoir, Nullerjahre ( The Aughts, 2022), became a national bestseller. Today, he is widely celebrated as a powerful voice on East-West sociological issues, hosting the award-winning podcast Springerstiefel ( Combat Boots ).

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