The District

Andreas Maier’s The District is the latest volume of his insightful and illuminating book series Ortsumgehung. It deals with the exploration of life itself through the eyes of a prepubescent boy and his developing relationship with books, music and theatre and their interconnection with human existence. In the end he will comprehend the one true myth of art: Do it.

»What makes the success of Knausgård, Henschel, and Maier likewise, is the ordinariness of the events retold – childhood friendships, families’ misfits, disasters at school, the discovery of sexuality, adolescent politicization but also aestheticisation – but it also asserts that certain literary aspiration that fiction usually attests phantasy through the preciseness of description. […] The District is the hinge in Maier’s cycle of novels: from now on, we’ll follow the artist on his journey of self-discovery. The way this is made obvious here is the biggest feat of the project so far.« Andreas Platthaus, FAZ

»Andreas Maier is going to continue his memory-project and in it […] he will keep finding new, surprising insights that transcend the coincidentally personal. […] This exploration of origin, designed to comprise twelve volumes, already belongs to great literature.« Jörg Magenau, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»Nobody follows memory as beautifully Proustian as Andreas Maier.« Marc Peschke, der Freitag

»Andreas Maier’s prose is scintillating and true-to-life, so that you believe yourself to follow The District’s narrator like a shadow. And not to worry if you can’t find the Wetterau on the map: after reading [The District], you’ll be able to locate Friedberg and the Wetterau quite precisely on the emotional map.« Wolfgang Popp, ORF

»It’s astonishing how Andreas Maier manages to bring [his story] to full circle in the end. Each of his […] memory sketches is chosen with care. And [each of them] unfailingly leads to metaphysical Proust-like moments.« Gerrit Bartels, Der Tagesspiegel

»A formidable read.« Judith Liere, Der Stern