The Short End of the Sonnenallee

Thomas Brussig is the author of nine novels, including Wasserfarben and Helden wie wir. He also wrote the screenplays for two film adaptations of his novels Helden wie wir and Sonnenallee. Born in East Berlin, Brussig now divides his time between Berlin and Mecklenburg.

Jonathan Franzen's work includes four novels (The Twenty-Seventh City, Strong Motion, The Corrections, Freedom), two collections of essays (Farther Away, How To Be Alone), a memoir (The Discomfort Zone), and, most recently, The Kraus Project. He is recognised as one of the best American writers of our age and has won many awards. He lives in New York City and Santa Cruz, California.

Jenny Watson is an associate professor of German at Marquette University. Since receiving her PhD in German and Scandinavian literature, Watson has published many books and articles, including German Milwaukee, "Selma Lagerlöf: Surface and Depth," and Scandinavia and Germany: Cross-Cultural Currents. She lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Thomas Brussig's classic German satire, translated into English for the first time and introduced by Jonathan Franzen, is a comedic, moving account of life in East Berlin before the Fall of the Berlin Wall

The Short End of the Sonnenallee, is a satire set, literally, on the Sonnenallee, the famed "boulevard of the sun" in East Berlin.

Within this boulevard lives Michael, an adolescent who faces daily ridicule whenever he steps out of his apartment building and comes into view of the observation platform on the West side. "Look, a real Zonie. Can we take your picture?" Hopelessly in love with the most beautiful girl on the street, Michael is batted away in favour of the Western boys who are free to cross the border. What chance does Michael have, and how much trouble will he get into by pursuing her?

Laugh-out-loud funny and unabashedly silly, Brussig's novel follows the bizarre, grotesque quotidian details of life in the German Democratic Republic. As this new translation shows, the ideas at its heart - freedom, democracy and life's fundamental hilarity - hold great relevance for today.

'Gentle comedy ... Funny, rueful' Telegraph

Thomas Brussig's classic German satire, translated into English for the first time and introduced by Jonathan Franzen, is a comedic, moving account of life in East Berlin before the Fall of the Berlin Wall