Ten minutes in the rehearsal room of life

The four 16-year-olds are all children of immigrants, including Niko to some extent because his mother hails from the German Democratic Republic. You know, even if you have entered this training room many times, you don't necessarily have a rosy future.

It can also come one “tube receiver” after another. Although there will probably be a good ten minutes at some point, for some people they have less luck due to circumstances.

That's what the first story, “A New House,” in Sasha Stanisic's new book with the record-breaking long title “If a widow wants to be spoken to, she places the watering can on the grave with the spout facing forward,” is about.

At first glance, the individual chapters appear to be independent stories, but they are usually tightly connected to each other and build on each other. This is why the author recommends at the beginning: “Please read in order.” The four boys, for example, reappear later in the group or individually, like Sasha, in the colorful, biographical chapters about Helgoland.

Talented and full of humor, the stories of different people from our time magically connect with each other, after all, all characters enter life's rehearsal room at some point.

In one chapter, Georg Horvath and his son Paul sit at a tram stop and feed hundreds of seagulls with fried potatoes. Suddenly, George whispered to his son a terrible educational suggestion. When the next tram arrives and the doors open, the two look at each other, wait until the doors close right then throw away the remaining french fries and all the seagulls fly away behind them. The doors close and the tram starts. What a great picture.