Another Era / Eine andere Epoche
Novel
The everyday life of politics in times of scandal
Searching for a society without hate
On false accusations and real secrets
Berlin, Bundestag, autumn 2011. The Social Democratic Party is slumbering in opposition when a burnt-out mobile home is found in Eisenach on a November day: The end of a right-wing extremist terror cell confronts the still young Berlin Republic with almost unsolvable questions. Suddenly elevated to the position of moral authority, MP Andi Nair performs brilliantly in his role as chairman of the appointed investigating committee. The events are recorded by his office manager Wegman Frost, who...
Berlin, Bundestag, autumn 2011. The Social Democratic Party is slumbering in opposition when a burnt-out mobile home is found in Eisenach on a November day: The end of a right-wing extremist terror cell confronts the still young Berlin Republic with almost unsolvable questions. Suddenly elevated to the position of moral authority, MP Andi Nair performs brilliantly in his role as chairman of the appointed investigating committee. The events are recorded by his office manager Wegman Frost, who can hardly grasp the depravity of the circumstances and the failure of the authorities and is pulled into a whirlpool of self-doubt. As a foster child of unknown origins, his commitment against xenophobia was what made him get into politics. He is not alone in this: a friend from his youth, Flo Janssen – once flown out of burning Saigon as a nameless baby – now stands at the lectern of the Reichstag spouting neoliberal ideas. And he is not just anyone – he is the vice chancellor.
Ulf Erdmann Ziegler’s new novel looks at how this country became what it is today. Another Era talks about right-wing terrorism, constitutional crisis, reunification and the search for identity. Passionate democrats reach the limits of their explanatory patterns. They can sense the end of an era on which their own biographies are based.
»Ulf Erdmann Ziegler creates images of a time that we have penetrated more deeply after reading and which seems more mysterious than ever because of it.« Christoph Bartmann, Süddeutsche Zeitung
»In his outstanding novel Another Era, Ulf Erdmann Ziegler tells the story of a turning point in recent German history. ... Ziegler commands a great sense for the codes of political speech, and the tragedy of a public life is portrayed with great laconism.« Paul Jandl, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
»A novel that is spectacular in its story and breath-taking in its design and that ventures into the dark side of parliamentary democracy – and at the same time it extracts aesthetic added value from it page after page.« Steffen Richter, Der Tagesspiegel
»[The novel] seeks and finds ... a form for something we all knew as reality, a form that captures the dissolving time and makes it observable once again in a different way, even if only for the moment.« Ekkehard Knörer, taz. die tageszeitung
»Ziegler has set the bar high. In the ›experiments‹ with which the narrative flow is interspersed, he analyses media and socio-political contexts, stylistically brilliantly interconnecting the Bonn and Berlin Republics at times, and the house in Zwickau set on fire by Beate Zschäpe and Wullf’s estate in Großburgwedel at others ...« Nils Kahlefendt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
»Without any showiness, without shrill tones, rather groping and questioning instead, [Ziegler] talks about issues such as networks and dependencies, friendship and betrayal, career and privacy – which gives the book complexity and depth.« Björn Gauges, Gießener Anzeiger
»Another Era is a wonderfully accomplished, illuminating novel that is able to give the political a deep consciousness and that taps into the political dimension of everyday human activity.« Jörg Magenau, Deutschlandfunk Kultur
»Ulf Erdmann Ziegler has written a gripping, but also thoughtful, artful novel that gives us a better understanding of our recent past and present.« Christian Möller, WDR
»In this clever novel [the exposure of the NSU and the scandals surrounding Christian Wulff] mark a sea change during which democracy stumbled into profound crisis.« Hörzu
»Ulf Erdmann Ziegler creates images of a time that we have penetrated more deeply after reading and which seems more mysterious than ever because of it.« Christoph Bartmann, Süddeutsche Zeitung
»In his outstanding novel Another Era, Ulf Erdmann Ziegler tells the story of a turning point in recent German history. ... Ziegler commands a great sense for the codes of political speech, and the tragedy of a public life is portrayed with great...