With humor and insight, the late Wolfgang Herrndorf, making his U.S. debut, provides a window into German society through this universal story of growing up.
Fourteen-year-old narrator Mike Klingenberg sets the stage for a mystery by describing the strong scent of blood and coffee in the police station where he's being held. "Where is Tschick?" he wonders. "I'd last seen him on the side of the autobahn, hopping into the bushes on one leg." Who is Tschick, and what was Mike doing with him on the autobahn? Mike reveals the answers in a coming-of-age story disguised as a road trip in a hot-wired Lada ("a small Russian car shaped a little like a jeep"). Mike is in love with Tatiana Cosic, "the prettiest girl in the world"--or at least the prettiest in his eighth grade Berlin public school. She's having a birthday party at her uncle's in Wallachia, in Romania, and invites everyone but Mike, Tschick and a few other "losers." Mike, assuming he'd be invited, worked for weeks on a drawing of Beyoncé, Tatiana's favorite singer. Tschick decides it's only right that Mike give Tatiana her present, and they set out (without a map) in the Lada to find the party.
The pair's misadventures give readers insight into German history and topography. They meet, among others, a sexy runaway who helps them pilfer gas, and a Communist conscripted by the Nazis for his marksmanship. Tschick is raising himself, but Mike's parents leave him alone in the house. Are they so different? --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness