A novel about family and masculinity, and the question of whether we shape our own destiny - or whether our background and character inevitably shape us.
In Jackie Thomae's novel, we meet two German half-brothers navigating their manhood, reluctant to centralise the colour of their skin as a way of defining how they see themselves and the decisions they make. - MICK who teeters through the Berlin of the nineties. With no boundaries and no rules, the years blur into one big party. When it comes to an abrupt end, all that remains is a question. Time, money, friends, love - where did it all go?- GABRIEL who advances through his career with purpose and ambition. Moving from Leipzig to London, he becomes a sought-after architect, starting a family and establishing a successful business. His CV sets him apart as one of life's success stories, until a mundane incident tips him over the edge. A monumental fall from grace, he is suddenly framed as an aggressor: a Black man accused of racism, a family man accused of assault.The hedonist waiting for his next high, the next wave to ride, the next distraction, and the overachiever who piles nothing but pressure and expectations on himself. Besides being born in 1970, Mick and Gabriel seem to have nothing in common. Both children of their time, they are also sons of the same father: a Senegalese student in the GDR, who returns to Dakar leaving his sons with only his looks. And life questions to which both find their own, very different answers.