Author Description

Benedikt von Wallerstein, an ascetic mathematician, had always eschewed human company, preferring calculations to emotions. But with the onset of a debilitating illness, Benedikt suddenly longs for a child. His advertisement seeking a boy for adoption is answered by Valery, an impoverished Russian refugee, and Marja, his mother, an unkempt, energetic pianist. With this unlikely pair, Benedikt undergoes a hilarious, agonizing sentimental education. Against the background of a Germany swollen by reunification and corrupted by its economic miracle, Marja learns the Teutonic virtues of cleanliness and order but teaches Benedikt the seductive disorder of love, jealousy, and loss.