Winner of the Peter Härtling Prize!

Under Pressure

Badey / Kühn

Under Pressure

1st ed. published 2018. 180 pages From the age of 14 years up All rights available

Under Pressure

Ron Robert Ranke has no plan, but he does have an old photograph out of the kitchen drawer to help him find his father. His classmate, Clara, is secretive, silent and has been in a wheelchair for the past year. Ron Robert lives in a high-rise apartment complex on the outskirts of Frankfurt/Oder, Clara comes from a rich family. The thing that brings them together is a borrowed white convertible that takes them to a godforsaken village on the Polish border for the election of the Oderbruch Queen on Robert’s 15th birthday.
The jury’s explanation:
The authors, Claudia Kühn and Ada Baday, describe a journey to the end of the world, which in this case is Oderbruch. Stylistically confident, funny and at the same time with a great sense of earnestness, they guide their characters through the small and great catastrophies of this road movie, through accidents that almost happen and brawls with aging village Casanovas, through excesses and moments of tranquility.
We’re both sitting here, with our hands over each other. And the snowflakes are there, the street, the night. Outside ist he world, the other one. Our world is here.
»Now we’re going to Letschow to look for your father. And we will find him. Of course we will, Ron Robert. Sure as can be. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before! Sometimes I don’t know what I am thinking. The two of us, you and me, we are going to find your father.«