The turkey paradise
The turkey paradise is the first novel by the Berlin writer Stephan Sarek ; it was published in 1997 by Rake-Verlag (Kiel) and in 2001 by Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (Munich). In December 2011 a new edition was published by fhl Verlag (Leipzig).
action
Berlin, nine years after reunification. Maria Thanner is 21, believes she is a lesbian and has moved to wicked Berlin on the run from the honesty of her Paderborn homeland. Her first apartment of her own is in a shabby old building in Prenzlauer Berg, where she meets her neighbor, Björn Hook, right after the first night. Björn corresponds to what Maria hopes to look for in Berlin. People who are a little crazy, by no means normal, and who still follow an ideal. In Bjorn's case, it is Björn's belief that turkeys are really extraterrestrials who are tortured and turned into meatballs by the government. The fact that he has also given up celibacy for himself irritates her, but since she is a lesbian, it even seems to suit her.
While Maria is still in the process of gaining a foothold in the unfamiliar environment, the gynecologist, whom she visits because of inexplicable nausea, tells her that she is pregnant. A fact that she cannot explain, since her last sexual encounter with a man (which was decisive in becoming a lesbian) was too long ago. Since she doesn't know anyone else in Berlin, Björn is the only one to whom she reveals. The two get closer, but the moment Maria begins to fall in love with him, Björn makes preparations for a turkey rescue campaign. He plans to drive to Lower Saxony in a rented pickup truck and free turkeys that live on a turkey farm there (and that he believes are aliens). ´The 800 DM that he needs for this campaign he wants to get through a robbery on the Sparkasse, which is on the same street where they live. Maria, who is justifiably afraid for your "naive", succeeds in stopping him. To do this, however, she has to pretend that she is raiding the savings bank herself, but intends to withdraw 800 DM from her account while Björn waits outside with the escape moped. When she is standing in front of the cash register in the Sparkasse, it is accidentally attacked by real bank robbers. Maria is taken hostage for a short time, gets hold of some of the loot and is able to flee with the bank robbers who did not notice that they were stolen.
Björn finally travels to Lower Saxony with the money he looted, but there he finds out that instead of the 75 extraterrestrials he suspects there are several thousand on the farm; he can never fit everyone in his little van. When he is caught by the security department, the operation seems to have finally failed, but a driving error leads to the unintentional liberation of all 20,000 turkeys.
Maria, who, meanwhile, lovesick after Björn, hears in the traffic news that there are warnings in Lower Saxony of turkeys running free, follows Björn head over heels. During the initially unsuccessful search for him, she discovers the secret of her immaculate conception. The two only meet again on the train back to Berlin.
Reviews
- Büchereule praises the book: "Wonderful weird humor, easily written and a hilarious story."
- In 1997, the Frankfurter Rundschau wrote in its literary review: "Stephan Sarek has a fantasy, interweaves the bizarre with the fantastic, adds everyday things, spices up with satire and professes a 'certain naivety'."
Individual evidence
- ^ Review by Büchereule
- ↑ Review of the Frankfurter Rundschau on the website fhl-verlag.de