Florian Herscht, a gentle giant of limited intellect living in the Thuringian town of Kana, becomes obsessed with the physics of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music. Convinced by a local physicist that the collapse of the universe is imminent due to the disintegration of matter, Florian writes desperate letters to Angela Merkel seeking intervention. His daily life revolves around his protector, the Boss, a local neo-Nazi leader who organizes paramilitary drills and plans racial violence. As Florian attempts to reconcile Bach's celestial harmonies with the increasing brutality of his far-right surroundings, a series of wolf attacks and explosions signals the onset of the entropy he fears.
Readers interested in the intersection of high culture and provincial extremism will find a detailed portrait of contemporary German political tension. The narrative serves those who study how isolation and literal-mindedness can lead to radicalization or total psychological breakdown. Someone finishing this book gains an understanding of how abstract scientific theories and historical art interact with the mundane reality of small-town radicalism. It provides a cold look at the failure of institutional authority to protect the vulnerable from both ideological manipulation and their own existential terrors.
- Published
- 2021
- Language
- EN
