Vendor
	Fritz Agency Christian Dittus
Original language
English
Categories
Fiction: general & literary

THE WEISZHEIT HOUSE

Holger Siemann

Novel of a Century

Like the history of Berlin in the 20th century, this is a layered, multi-voiced, sometimes brutal and disturbing story of a family and the house they lived in.

In 2011 Sven Gabbert inherits an apartment building in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district, built in 1900, with 30 apartments: The Weiszheithaus. The attic houses a bizarre archive full of the published works by famous GDR author Kurt Weiszheit, his diaries, manuscripts and letters, but also photos, official documents and other remnants of the residents. Wheelchair-bound after an accident, Sven resorts to the exploration of the house’s history. The supposedly rich body of source material soon turns into a maelstrom, in which fragments of Kurt Weiszheit’s writings, kaleidoscope like, tell different versions of his Weiszheit stories, often contradicted by the letters, diaries, patient charts, advertising signs, tenant ledgers, notes and other material. Which version of the story is true? What is made up?