"
A wild and wonderful ride" from a comic memoirist "who writes brilliantly about Germany and Germans. . . and being young and insane. . . . just read it, ok?" (Dave Barry, Pulitzer Prize-winning,
New York Times-bestselling author of
Best. State. Ever).
You know that feeling you get watching the elevator doors slam shut just before your toxic coworker can step in? There's a word for this mix of malice and joy, and the Germans invented it. It's Schadenfreude, deriving pleasure from others' misfortune. Misfortune happens to be a specialty of Rebecca Schuman-and this is great news for the Germans. For Rebecca adores the Vaterland with a single-minded passion.
Let's just say the affection isn't mutual.
Schadenfreude is the story of a teenage Jewish intellectual who falls in love-with a boy (who breaks her heart), a language (that's nearly impossible to master), a culture (that's nihilistic, but punctual), and a landscape (that's breathtaking when there's not a wall in the way). Rebecca is a misunderstood 90's teenager with a passion for Pearl Jam and Ethan Hawke circa
Reality Bites, until two men walk into her high school Civics class: Dylan Gellner, with deep brown eyes and an even deeper soul, and Franz Kafka, hitching a ride in Dylan's backpack. These two men are the axe to the frozen sea that is Rebecca's spirit, and what flows forth is a passion for all things German.
At once a snapshot of a young woman finding herself, and a country starting to stitch itself back together after nearly a century of war,
Schadenfreude, A Love Story is a hilarious and heartfelt memoir proving that sometimes the truest loves play hard to get.
"Spit-out-your-schnitzel funny." -Pamela Druckerman,
New York Times-bestselling author of
Bringing Up Bébé
