A novel about loss and being lost, about mothers and sons, about the search for one's own order
When his father dies in an accident, the narrator's idyllic Waldorf childhood comes to an abrupt end. Now disorder reigns, even within him. He hides his grief and his fear. His mother withdraws and he lives with friends all the time, developing a gifted sense of what he has to do to be liked. And that's what he wants. He wants to be loved and admired, wants to be a writer and be part of the cool cultural haute volée of Berlin, where he moves after school. But like a hidden current, the feelings of fear lurking inside him paralyze him more and more until he can barely move.
Simon Elson, born in Hamburg in 1980, occasionally writes for "Weltkunst" and "Monopol" in Berlin, but actually writes books. "Der Kunstkenner" (2016) is the first biography of the German-Jewish art connoisseur and museum director Max J. Friedländer. With "Der Wolkensammler" (2020), Elson delves deep into the cultural and scientific phenomenon of the cloud. "Power of Silence" (2022) is the first German-language monograph on the Danish landscape painter Janus la Cour (1837-1909) - and Elson recently worked intensively on the historical monumental work "The Flame of Freedom" (2022) on the revolution of 1848. "History of Disorder" is his first novel.
"Geschichte der Unordnung" will be published by Blumenbar on 14.02. 2024