Ben Fergusson Boeken

Tussen de ruïnes van het door de oorlog verwoeste Berlijn is Kasper Meiers grootste zorg overleven. Door te ruilen en te handelen op de zwarte markt probeert hij genoeg eten voor zichzelf en zijn oude vader bij elkaar te sprokkelen. Dan staat Eva opeens voor zijn deur. Ze vraagt om hulp bij de zoektocht naar een Britse soldaat die haar vriendin zwanger zou hebben gemaakt. Als Kasper zijn medewerking weigert, dreigt Eva al zijn geheimen te onthullen en sleurt ze hem mee in een sinistere klopjacht op de Britse soldaten.

A story of adoption, queer parenting and gender expectations around family roles.

"For eighteen-year-old Ralf living in West Berlin, the summer of 1989 opens up a whole new world. He and his three best friends have finished school for ever and are living in a golden few months before the next stage of their adult life begins. But the old tensions of East and West come closer to home when Ralf makes some unsettling discoveries about his mother, alongside confronting his own sexuality. Forced to make choices about which side he is on, Ralf becomes caught up in a web of lies, deceit and confusion. Who can he really trust?"--Provided by publisher.

'A book to love and cherish' Deborah Levy, author of The Cost of Living 'A beautiful writer and, just as important, a beautiful thinker' Hanya Yanagihara, author of A Little Life 'Friendship is, in fact, as much the topic of this book as aloneness' Sarah Bakewell, Guardian At no time before have so many people lived alone, and never has loneliness been so widely or keenly felt. Why, in a society of individualists, is living alone perceived as a shameful failure? And can we ever be happy on our own? 'A heartfelt memoir on being single, living alone and the existential experience of loneliness' Financial Times 'Romantic love, suggests the author, is the lone "grand narrative" to have survived seismic societal shifts in modern times . . . Hermits and intimacy, the taboo of loneliness and the consolation of friendship - all find their place in a meditation that nods to joy and adversity' Observer

A fascinating look at racism and snobbery. Broken postwar Germany is superbly drawn and events in Africa are horrific The Times