by Lutz Seiler (Germany)
Paperback ISBN: 9781911344414
Pages: 480

Summer 1989: Edgar Bendler, a young man reeling from personal loss, leaves Halle and lands on Hiddensee, a Baltic island that has become a strange refuge at the edge of the GDR. He takes a job washing dishes at the Klausner (the “Zum Klausner” inn), where a drifting summer workforce—runaways, outsiders, and dreamers—tries to build a community “beyond the headlines.”

There Ed meets Alexander Krusowitsch, known as Kruso: charismatic, demanding, and oddly tender. Under Kruso’s influence, the island becomes both sanctuary and pressure cooker, as friendships, loyalties, and ideals are tested against the rising urgency of escape attempts across the Baltic. Kruso blends lyrical intensity with political and moral tension, capturing a final, feverish summer before the world changes.

About the author

Lutz Seiler is a German poet and novelist. He studied German Studies and History and first became known for his poetry and essays before publishing Kruso, his debut novel. The book won the German Book Prize and brought Seiler broad international attention; he later received additional major recognition for his contributions to German-language literature.

Buy this book via your neighborhood English bookstore in Germany.