Дом за начинаещи

In the early 1990s a boy from Vidin follows his father to Germany and spends three years in a Catholic children's home run by Caritas in Kalbe, in the former East Germany, plunged into a world where only German is spoken. The home takes in orphans, troubled children and those whose parents cannot cope, and its carers are more friends than tyrants. Between school and chores, the boy learns the pecking order of the gangs, falls in love, gets a bicycle that brings real freedom and listens to cassettes with Jakub, who fled the war in Yugoslavia. Darker moments come too: a fight that leaves another boy hurt, a suicide, a bloody street clash involving neo-Nazis. The story, drawn from the author's own memories, builds to the summer of the World Cup in the United States.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

416 pages in the original

Genres

Coming of age, Autofiction (assigned by AI)

First published

2023 by Janet 45

ISBN

9786191868230 (original)