Applause for a “cool village novel” — Sven Pfizenmaier reads at the Steinmühle

The German-language press hails the book as “the funniest work about the German provinces…,” praises its style with its “lively cascades of sentences,” and describes the author himself as a “magician and wanderer of worlds”: Reason enough for the Steinmühle to invite the young author Sven Pfizenmaier to a reading at the Forum. The bottom line: The book *Draußen feiern die Leute* was also well received at the Forum.

Before the event, Principal Bernd Holly (pictured with the author) raved about the novel, which he had devoured with enthusiasm. After the event, audience members lined up for an autograph. In between, the audience got to see a young man who read a sample from his successful book and came across as reserved.

His novel is different. Using a magnifying glass with an enormous focal length, Sven Pfizenmaier focuses on village life in the Lower Saxony countryside—not in the sense of an absence of big cities, but as something that can also make one feel lonely. The author describes three characters with exuberant precision, with an imagination that seems to run wild but reveals what it means to be different. The book revolves around these relatable characters—the drug lord Rasputin from the nearby city of Hanover, immigrants from Kazakhstan, and the ever-growing number of people who disappear from the town while the locals are partying. The Onion Festival, for example.

As one can see, the novel certainly has autobiographical elements. Everyday social problems are woven into anecdotes and placed within a broader context. The unflinching nature of the descriptions—without, however, exposing the characters to ridicule—is likely one of the secrets to Pfizenmaier’s success.