Ulrich Rüdenauer: Offside

A child grows up on a farm in southern Germany. Father? Mother? They are not there. The child must figure out how to get by with people who dictate what it should do, without love. The question of where the mother is and where the father is lingers as a mystery throughout this bitterly beautiful story of a childhood in silent Germany. The war is not yet over, the birds sing, the fruit trees bloom, and the meadows behind the hill are a safe place for this child, who seeks to understand why the people – the pastor, the teacher, uncle, aunt, the children around – are this way or that towards it. The child must work, even when school calls. Only the grandfather checks in from time to time to see that everything is alright and takes the child by the hand. The stations of a life on the margins appear almost archaic, passing through in this debut novel written with great sensitivity. Ulrich Rüdenauer was awarded the Anna-Haag Prize 2025 for his debut novel. The event will be moderated by Dr. Anton Knittel, director of the literature house. Ulrich Rüdenauer, born in 1971 in Bad Mergentheim, studied German studies and political science in Würzburg, Heidelberg, and Frankfurt. He works as a journalist for newspapers and magazines, as an author and director for public broadcasting, is active as a cultural organizer, and lives in Berlin and southern Germany. "Abseits" is his first novel.