The middle of the world

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The Middle of the World is a novel by Andreas Steinhöfel from 1998. It is a story about the problems of growing up, puberty , envy and jealousy , friendship and ( gay ) love . The novel was awarded the Buxtehuder Bullen and nominated for the German Youth Literature Prize.

The book was translated into English by Alisa Jaffa and edited by Jonas Sachwitz (published as The Center of the World in the USA in 2005, published in the UK in 2006 as Center of my World ). It is also into Danish (Navle Verdens), Netherlands (het midden van de wereld), Polish (Środek świata) , Ukrainian (Середина світу) , French (Le Milieu du monde) , Russian (В центре Вселенной) and Slovenia (Središče sveta ) has been translated.

content

The main plot of the novel depicts the life of the family at a time when the children were 17 years old. The period of the main plot extends from the end of the summer vacation to the New Year. In addition, in flashbacks following the principle of association, the family's past is told and in individual sub-chapters the childhood of the twins Phil and Dianne as well as the life of their single mother Glass and her circle of friends are told.

A little away from a small German town, Phil lives with his mother Glass and twin sister Dianne in the old Villa Visible . The villagers have little contact with the family, which is considered strange - the children are referred to as "witch children", the mother with her frequently changing partners as a "slut", while Glass, for her part, dismissively calls the predominantly conservative-adapted villagers "the little people". Dianne can allegedly communicate with animals, lives very secluded in her own world and lets only a few people participate in her life. Other caregivers for Phil are his best friend Kat, the attorney Tereza, who is a close friend of Glass, and the seafaring relative Gable.

The focus is increasingly on Phil's love for his classmate Nicholas: Phil falls in love with Nicholas, who has just entered the class, who attracts attention with his sportiness and good looks, but otherwise remains closed. Nicholas correctly interprets Phil's hesitant signals and tells him to sleep with him. Phil is in love and enjoys sex with Nicholas, but his attempts to deepen his relationship with Nicholas are usually blocked by Nicholas. When Phil Kat reported about his relationship with Nicholas a little late, she found Phil's silence briefly insulting, but then made friends with Nicholas. The friendship with three runs harmoniously for some time.

Also important is a secret that shattered the relationship between Dianne and her mother. While Phil was away for a few weeks three years ago, something must have damaged the relationship, but both are silent about Phil. Only when Glass finds a steady partner in the lawyer Michael and Dianne develops a circle of friends at school do they slowly open up. Dianne tells Phil that several years ago she poisoned her mother with ergot when she was pregnant. Glass was stillborn and was hospitalized for a long time. Dianne didn't want another child like the twins to suffer from the marginalization in the village and Glass's changing relationships. Three years ago, when Dianne's friend fell into a coma in an accident in a severe storm, there was an argument with Glass, in which Dianne confessed to her mother that she was poisoned.

Shocked by the revelation, Phil tries to find consolation in Nicholas, but he discovers him during sexual intercourse with Kat. Phil locks himself in his room for days. When he finally speaks to Nicholas, he tells him that he doesn't love him, but needs him anyway. A few seconds later Nicholas is shot by Wolf, a mentally ill classmate who was once close friends with Phil, and loses his eye in the process. Thereupon wild speculations rage in the village and Phil closes himself off in brooding again. When Gable appeared in Visible at Christmas, he made Phil an offer to go with him on a ship to America for a while to leave the incidents behind him. Phil accepts and wants to look for his father in America. After much hesitation, Glass reveals the identity of his father, who is also completely unknown to him by name. The relationship between Glass and Dianne slowly seems to be healing when Phil sets off from Visible into the big wide world.

characters

  • Phil : the book's 17-year-old main character who acts as the first-person narrator. His homosexuality has been accepted normally by his environment and causes him fewer problems, but more likely that the high school student often appears brooding in dealing with his fellow men and rarely takes the initiative himself. He had his first experience with a boy, arranged by his mother and Gable, at the age of 14 during a boat trip through the Mediterranean. Phil's favorite places are the Visible library, which for him represents “the center of the world”, and a pond hidden in the forest.
  • Glass : the mother of the twins, who she gave birth to at the age of 17. She came to Germany with the birth of children from the USA, where she inherited Visible from her sister. Young, single parent, in a foreign-speaking country and with little money, she managed to arm her children for life and at the same time to earn money with a job as a legal assistant. In the village she is viewed critically because of her frequently changing partners and her unconventional upbringing, and sometimes even hated. But she also receives frequent visits from village women who have been neglected or betrayed by their husbands and who ask for advice and help.
  • Dianne : Phil's twin sister, who told Glass and parts of the village that she could talk to animals - when a boy who watched Dianne bathing was attacked by his dog, these speculations were particularly evident. Dianne in particular, but also Phil, notice the downsides of Glass's dispute with the villagers, as they hardly find friends in the village. She hates Glass for that. In the course of the main story, she finally made contact with her classmate Kora and her circle of friends. Another important person in her life is Zephyr , the pseudonym for the boy of the same age, Jan, who was killed in a storm on the way to Visible and has been in a coma for three years. The boy was Dianne's friend before he fell into a coma and she is still visiting him in the hospital. Only towards the end of the novel does she slowly let go of him.
  • Kat : Phil's best friend, whom he first met as a child in a clinic when they both had their big ears. Kat is the daughter of the local school principal, who is unhappy that his daughter is friends with the son of the notorious Glass. By contrast, the clever and self-confident Kat sees Glass as a role model. At the same time, however, it becomes increasingly clear in the course of the book that Kat has selfish and possessive character traits. After her betrayal at the end of the novel, Phil doesn't yet know whether he wants to continue his friendship with Kat.
  • Nicholas : Phil's 18-year-old boyfriend, who's new to the class after flying from a boarding school further away. His family is some of the wealthiest in the small town, but dysfunctional with a constantly traveling father and an addicted mother. Phil tries to fathom Nicholas, but this remains closed and defines the relationship mainly through sex. Nicholas is panicked that the relationship might lead him out. In a shed, Nicholas collects objects lying on the floor, about which he makes up stories. Among his items is a snow globe that Phil lost when he first saw Nicholas as a child.
  • Tereza : a young lawyer who discovers the broken glass in the snow during her labor with Phil and Dianne. A close friendship develops from this, in which the lesbian Tereza also develops romantic feelings, which are not reciprocated by the heterosexual Glass. Tereza is the first to feel that Phil is gay and is always on hand to help Glass. The daughter of a renowned professor is described as red-haired and delicate. Towards the end of the novel, Tereza and her partner decide to move to the Netherlands, which for Phil is associated with a sad feeling of separation.
  • Pascal : Tereza's partner for a number of years, who stands out for her sarcastic and occasionally hurtful, but at the same time honest and mostly accurate comments. Professionally, Pascal, who comes from the Netherlands, processes jewelry chains.
  • Michael : a successful lawyer who becomes Glass' partner and their first steadfast relationship over the course of the novel. Above all, Phil admires the calm and self-confidence that Michael exudes.
  • Gable : a cousin of Glass who travels the world as a seafarer and loves the sea and the freedom that goes with it. For Phil, Gable is a certain substitute for father, but only to a limited extent, since Gable only visits Visible occasionally.
  • Mr. Handel : Phil's math teacher, who philosophizes again and again in his lessons and also takes on the usual views of the villagers.
  • Wolf : The boy of the same age is Phil's friend in sixth grade for a short time, as both are in an outsider position. When Wolf shoots small birds in front of his eyes, the friendship quickly breaks. Wolf had to watch his mother's suicide and suffered psychological damage from it. A few years later, in the main plot of the book, he wants to fire a warning shot at Phil, but aims - possibly out of jealousy of Phil - directly at Nicholas.
  • Thomas : Kat's ex-boyfriend, who is jealous of Phil because he thinks he is Kat's new boyfriend. When Phil suddenly kisses him and shows him that he is not interested in girls, Thomas gets even angrier and instigates Wolf to shoot.
  • Dennis : one of the village children with whom Phil and Dianne fight a bloody battle on both sides during their childhood (called by Phil the “battle of the big eye”), which contributes to the myth of the “witch children”. Dennis wounds Dianne with a knife, leaving a scar. Dennis later moves out of the village with his mother, who is beaten by her husband (after Glass advised her to do so). Ten years later, a changed Dennis surprisingly appears on the doorstep of Visible and apologizes to Dianne.
  • Annie Glösser : a mentally confused villager who lives a bit away from the village. She befriends Phil and shows the child how to have a "nice experience" (she means masturbation ). After she drives into a hole on a construction site, she is taken to an asylum and her house falls apart.
  • Mr. Trödt : the elderly owner of a mom and pop shop who went through two wars and is one of the few people in the village who treats Glass with friendliness without condemning her. After his death, he bequeathed his candy machine to Glass's children.
  • Mr. Hendriks : a filthy undertaker who is supposed to bury Tereza's father. Since Tereza's father wanted an earth burial in his garden, Glass pretends to be interested in Hendriks and advances him, but then tips him sleeping pills into his drink. So Tereza and Glass can steal the body and bury it in the garden.
  • Mrs. Hebeler : the strict librarian in the village that Nicholas helps out with.
  • Aunt Stella : Glass' older sister was an American beauty queen who discovered and bought Visible while traveling around Europe. She tried to renovate the house and invited her pregnant sister Glass to visit, but died in a lintel before Glass arrived.
  • Number Three : In the list of her sexual partners that Glass wrote down, “Number Three” is special because, according to Phil's calculations, this must be his father. Glass refuses to give Phil his name, despite requests, until almost the end of the novel.

Origin background

Andreas Steinhöfel (2008)

Andreas Steinhöfel was originally supposed to write a short story on the subject of first love, but the work expanded into a kind of " Bildungsroman ", which took two to three years to complete. He designed the love relationship as homosexual, because he is gay himself, and believed that he could make the love relationship so more believable, which in retrospect he described as naive: “Because then of course I realized that it doesn't matter which combination you are in writes about relationships. The feeling is always the same. But with Phil there was also the fact that the whole family is made up of outsiders. So it just made sense to reinforce his underdog status again ”. He would not have wanted to write a coming-out novel, but also tried to “go in the direction of a new self-image for gay teenage fictional characters”.

In an early draft, Phil was not yet developed as a first-person narrator, and because of his passivity to life, Steinhöfel also wanted the character to suffer the misfortune that would later happen to the even more passive and withdrawn Nicholas. The plot and characters in the book are fictitious, only the villager Annie Glösser was based on a neighbor from his childhood who was slightly mentally disabled, invited children into her home and in the end actually fell into a hole. However, he built a few allusions to Greek mythology, it can be for example Leto in the birth of her twins on the island of Delos (Greek visible english, visible ) down.

reception

The Middle of the World developed into the first great success of Steinhöfel and managed to attract many adult readers , despite publication in the predominantly youth book publisher Carlsen . The book is now part of school reading.

“It is the (children's) perspective of these flashbacks that gives space to the dry joke of the (children's book) author Steinhöfel, it is the romantic fairy tale motifs - from the pond to the black wooden doll to the castle with the royal children - that the translator and critic Steinhöfel, and it is the trick of a young well-read author with which he has combined these two levels into a book about the tenderness of reading and the risk of feelings. "

- Konrad Heidkamp , Die Zeit

"In [...]" The Middle of the World "a mysterious minor theme fascinates from the start, an enigmatic yet seductive melancholy. [...] We do not find out whether he will find his lost father, but we keep dreaming and hope for a continuation of this fairy tale, we want to hear more about this ballad "in a mellow tone". "

- Rufus Beck , Der Standard

Continued Defender - Tales from the Middle of the World

In several short stories Steinhöfel continues the stories of the characters in the book Defender - Stories from the Middle of the World , published in 2001 .

The story Herbstastern is about Dennis, the boy who injured Dianne on the shoulder with a knife, and his siblings, who cut a wreath out of Herbstastern , for their alcoholic father, who had previously died.

The story Winter Landscape is about Dianne's friend Kora and her little brother Tobbel, who are forced to spend a few days in a trailer. Her parents have a terrible argument and believe that they can only resolve it in the absence of the children; the nature of the narrative does not allow the possibility that it is intended to protect the children. The time in the caravan is particularly difficult for Kora and Tobbel because it is winter, Kora is overwhelmed with the situation and the children feel they have been sent away (or deported) by their parents. Kora is Dianne's only friend in The Middle of the World .

In the story The Cat , Kat tells about her friend Thomas, what she really feels for him, her first time with him, but also about her relationship with her parents and her best friend Phil, whom she loves very much but also knows that she is from cannot expect the same love for him. The short story helps a little to understand why Kat Phil is so betrayed in the book "Die Mitte der Welt".

The story Merle is about a brave student who is not subject to peer pressure. A new teacher teaches at her school and is bullied by Merle's classmates. After Merle has participated once, she doubts her actions and she takes all the courage to take her conscience into account.

Finally, you also get to know “Defender” better, who is actually called Johannes and also has a guest appearance in Steinhöfel's book The Mechanical Prince .

The quote on which Defender builds comes from the beginning of Charles Dickens ' novel David Copperfield : "The following pages will have to show whether I turn out to be the hero of my own life story or whether someone else has this role (...)" .

The book was also nominated for the German Youth Literature Prize.

Adaptations

Various theater adaptations of the novel have been performed throughout Germany since the novel was published. A performance at the Young Theater of the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus made headlines in March 2018, as the religious parents' association in North Rhine-Westphalia complained about the allegedly too revealing staging of the play.

In 2004 a shortened version of the audio book Die Mitte der Welt was produced , read by Rufus Beck .

In 2012 the independent audio play label produced blubb. Radio plays a radio play version with the permission of Carlsen Verlag. Tom Raczko (Phil) and Katrin Berger (Kat) can be heard in the leading roles . In 2018 the radio play was performed as a live event.

The book was directed by Jakob M. Erwa filmed and was released in Germany on 10 November 2016th The film was produced by Neue Schönhauser Filmproduktion, mojo: pictures and Prisma Film and is distributed by Universum Film . The film adaptation received various public grants. Louis Hofmann took on the main role of Phil, Jannik Schümann the role of Nicholas and Svenja Jung played Kat. Other roles include Sabine Timoteo as Glass, Inka Friedrich and Nina Proll as Tereza and Pascal, Ada Philine Stappenbeck as Dianne and Sascha Alexander Geršak as Glass 'new friend Michael.

Literature and web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steinhöfel's epilogue to Die Mitte der Welt, p. 457
  2. ↑ https://die-blaue-seite.de/interview-mit-andreas-steinhoefel
  3. ↑ Steinhöfel's epilogue to Die Mitte der Welt, p. 467
  4. ↑ https://die-blaue-seite.de/interview-mit-andreas-steinhoefel
  5. ↑ Steinhöfels epilogue to Die Mitte der Welt, pp. 463–464
  6. ↑ Steinhöfel's epilogue to Die Mitte der Welt, p. 458
  7. ↑ Steinhöfels epilogue to Die Mitte der Welt, p. 460
  8. ↑ Konrad Heidkamp: Andreas Steinhöfel's youth novel "The Middle of the World". In: zeit.de. January 8, 2013, accessed January 30, 2013 .
  9. ↑ Andreas Steinhöfel: "The middle of the world". In: derStandard.at. February 23, 2006, accessed December 10, 2017 .
  10. ↑ https://rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/duesseldorf/kultur/theater-wehrt-sich-gegen-kritik-von-elternverein_aid-20639863
  11. ↑ http://rezensions.literaturwelt.de/content/buch/s/t_steinhoefel_andreas_die_mitte_der_welt_audio_mtz_15034.html
  12. ↑ Ronny Dohmen: 'Die Mitte der Welt', radio play review. March 8, 2018, accessed December 26, 2018 (German).
  13. ↑ Westdeutsche Zeitung: With all the power of the voice. Retrieved December 26, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Andreas Steinhöfel: The middle of the world - Casting. March 15, 2015, accessed June 6, 2015 .
  15. ^ Vienna Film Fund - The Middle of the World. Retrieved June 6, 2015 .
  16. ↑ mojo: pictures. Retrieved June 6, 2015 .
  17. ↑ State Minister for Culture Grütters funds film and screenplay projects with around 2 million euros. May 29, 2015, accessed June 6, 2015 .