A fascinating glimpse into the world of one prosperous man, set upon by the forces of the new world.
Bernd Willenbrock is the owner of a used-car dealership in the newly unified Germany. In the nascent free market of Central Europe, the former East German engineer seems to be the paradigm of the new world: a successful businessman, an owner of real estate, and a generous husband. Prosperity seems guaranteed by a steady stream of cash-only clients from Eastern Europe, and plans for a glitzy new showroom are firmly underway. Yet little by little, a series of ever-more menacing incidents—an attempted break-in, the theft of several cars, a vicious beating--erode his innermost certainties. No amount of locks and latches, it seems, can contain his growing obsession with external safety or stop the coming violence.

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Christoph Hein, novelist, playwright, essayist, is among Europe’s most respected literary and political voices. A former president of PEN Germany and author of the internationally acclaimed novels The Distant Loverand The Tango Player, he lives in Berlin.