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A probing masterpiece-in-miniature of self-reflection and cultural reckoning.
From "the great German-language writer of his generation" (Joshua Cohen) comes the second novel of Kracht's career narrated by an eponymous "Christian" (the first was his best-selling 1995 debut, Faserland). Eurotrash begins in Zurich, where Christian has arrived to care for his eighty-year-old mother after her discharge from a mental institution. Reckoning with his family's dark history―his long-dead grandfather was intimately associated with and unapologetically supportive of the Nazis―and struggling to navigate the emotionally wrenching terrain of his relationship with his mother, Christian sets off on a road-trip with her. As they traverse Switzerland in a hired cab, mother and son attempt to give away her vast fortune, which they're carrying in a large plastic bag, to random strangers. By turns disturbing, disorienting, hilarious, and poignant, Eurotrash tells an intensely personal and unsparingly critical story of contemporary culture; a story that shows us a writer at the pinnacle of his powers of insight and observation.
"Incendiary ... A playful tale of reconciliation that never becomes saccharine, this is one readers won't want to miss." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"As entertaining as that is, this novel feels incomplete. It needs to be read with its short predecessor—and its possible successor(s)—to achieve lasting power. Set largely during a long car trip, a mother-and-son novel with compelling psychological gear shifts but not enough traction." —Kirkus Reviews
"In this work of autofiction, Kracht deftly reveals the narrator's conflict and guilt." —Library Journal
This information about Eurotrash was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Christian Kracht's books have been translated into more than thirty languages. His novel Imperium won the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize in 2012. He lives in Zurich with his wife and daughter.
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