The young Edgar Wibeau has died aged seventeen, in an unfortunate and entirely preventable electrical accident. Following his death, his long absent father interrogates his son's family and friends, trying to piece together the events that led to this untimely demise.
Never one to be upstaged, Edgar himself offers his commentary on events from beyond the grave, to give his account of his uneasy relationship with his mother, his fondness for his best friend Willy and his ill-fated infatuation with the unavailable but ever alluring Charlie.
Both reminiscent of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther and an homage to Salinger's A Catcher in the Rye, Plenzdorf's engaging satire on the cultural and social limits of East Germany has long been revered as a modern classic of German literature.
