The reporter Moritz von Uslar drives into a small east-German town and lives there for three months. He hangs around the main street, frequents the pubs and bars and blends into the daily life of the town, listening, observing, recording and writing everything down.
His mission is to venture out into the east-German hinterland away from the big city, to see if there is a life there beyond the conventional clichés of welfare culture, alcoholism, depopulation and right-wing extremism.
In this participant-observation study, field research meets adventure novel – viewed through the prism of the reporter’s unerringly objective gaze. From the meticulous observations, the verbatim transcripts of conversations, the jokes, the slogans, the fantasies, the horseplay and the abundance of absurd, touching and terrifying everyday events, a vivid picture emerges which does not merely portray life, but renders it palpable to the reader. This is classic, yet at the same time, modern reporting.
Moritz von Uslar has the courage, resilience and reflective powers to show that reality is always a place lying well beyond expectations. He finds an alien world in our own country – not an hour’s car drive away from Berlin, but far beyond the conventional clichés and prejudices.
