Sascha Reh
False Spring

fiction

368pp (89,000 words)

• About the Author

FALSCHER FRÜHLING tells the story of a single night in which the familiar order of three people falls apart, and of their reunion which makes them into a family again.

Lothar Lotmann, an aging man of the theatre, wants to test in one last great theatrical production everything at which he failed in his life: love, friendship, artistic self-realisation. For a long time now he has had nothing to set against the world of entertainment, he has snubbed his friends and his wife Emilie, a successful stage-designer, wants to leave him. On the evening before the divorce she meets an old friend to have a »second spring« with him. Their daughter Franziska, having grown up under the weight of her parents’ relationship, takes flight into virtual worlds, yet even her search for happiness takes a surprising turn.

With its quiet irony and virtuoso changes of perspective Sascha Reh’s first novel is also a hommage to the classics of the modern theatre.

Rights sold

paperback - Random House/btb

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Reviews

»A brillant novel, set in the world of theatre (...). This intellectually pleasing debut creates pure reading joy. It’s a work of well-seasoned style that, for once, deserves the inflationarily used term of the ›technically perfect‹ novel. This one is so entertaining, serious and funny that the author’s many talents will make you swoon. Perfect composition and brilliant dialogue, portraying the different characters in a pacy, individual style.«
SPIEGEL ONLINE

»This novel is constructed like a play in five acts. It consists of philosophical realism and is very close to life. Reh's language is smooth and sounds like familiar music, like a counterpoint to the complex structure of the text.«
Laudation Lower Rhine Literature Award

»Reh’s novel is a passionate and humorous plea on behalf of the vitality of the theatre – and evidence of the suggestive force of fiction.«
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»The perfect composition and stylistic variations in the description of the characters seem like a very complex and well composed piece of music with a haunting melody.«
Westdeutsche Zeitung

»An entertaining and well-made novel with authentic characters, and the dialogue is spot-on.«
Deutschlandradio

»A darkly ironical look at art and life. (...) An eleborate, beautifully built novel of surprising worldliness. (...) Life, love and drama are not merely mirrored, but thoroughly and playfully reflected.«
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung

»To these characters, linked by their common frustrations, hopes and desires, award-winning writer Sascha Reh gives a (theater) stage, where they can rest and tell their stories without squeaky and flashy effects. From sex in the elevator to family confessions in a restaurant: A clever, understated, pretty wise novel.«
Westdeutscher Rundfunk / EinsLive

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