Life at 17 is hard. Alex has it even harder, as she wears more black than purple, lives with a taciturn father and a parrot, and has a grand total of her two only friends at school, Paul and Nina. But then Mr Spitzing turns up, a new trainee teacher liked by everyone – even Alex.
On a class trip to Poland, she tries to find out if she’s just a student for him. At the same time, Paul would like to be more than just friends.
Overwhelmed by a thousand different emotions, she kisses Paul – in the most inappropriate place in the world: Auschwitz concentration camp. Someone takes a photo and the image goes viral – suddenly everyone is talking about Alex and ‘today’s youth’. Meanwhile, the parrot escapes and Paul disappears. Alex recognises: “This is my story, I have to find them both.”
Lena Gorelik tells the story of a 17-year-old who confronts the world in a humorous way, and with a smattering of the necessary pride. In passing, she mulls issues such as how history should be taught, or how memories can be conveyed. But the focus here is on the challenges posed by growing up, and the complex images we paint of ourselves and others.
Nominated for the 2018 German Children’s Literature Award