‘The rediscovery of this lost classic will shift perceptions of German literature in the English speaking world. Mercurial, seductive, smart and startling.’ – Megan Nolan

Four office workers, one unforgettable weekend – this shimmering lost German classic unveils the hidden lives inside every employee.

Welcome to the Wellis Corporation. Twenty-three storeys of shimmering glass cubicles, rattling typewriters, spiraling corridors: a corporate kingdom with its own neon light.

Across the glittering panes, the acrobatic window cleaner swoops and dives, or pauses, still as a gargoyle, seeing things that nobody else sees.

Over one weekend, we follow four employees into their private worlds. An ageing secretary; a translator in a mid-life-crisis; a once-glamorous typist; and a lovelorn trainee.

Together, they reveal the illusions we live by – in the workplace, in the home and in our own mind’s eye.

Lost for decades since it was first published in Germany in 1959, introduced by Megan Nolan and in a hypnotic new translation by Rob Madole, this crystalline debut novel by a pioneering female writer rewrites German literary history.

Praise

The rediscovery of this lost classic will shift perceptions of German literature in the English speaking world. Mercurial, seductive, smart and startling.
Megan Nolan

Through Rehmann’s cinematic storytelling, beautifully translated by Madole, the most mundane of lives are shot through with fertile and cunning details. It’s impossible not to care about these characters, even if they only manage to find meaning from their dutiful return to the office on Monday morning
Publishers Weekly