Peter Schneider

"Eduard, a German scientist and child of postwar Berlin, has long been settled in California with his American wife, Jenny, and their three children when he discovers that he has inherited an apartment building in the former East Berlin. Lured by the property and a promising new job offer, he returns to his native city.". "But post-Communist Berlin is a surreal and baffling landscape to Eduard, who struggles to orient himself in a city where he feels uncannily at home and yet estranged. He finds his property occupied by a hostile troupe of squatters. On top of this, his marital relations have dipped toward freezing as his wife resists Eduard's efforts at repatriation. Convinced that Jenny's distaste for Berlin is a rejection of Eduard himself, the neurotic hero launches a series of quixotic stunts in a mad scheme to win back his wife and at last come to terms with his home."--BOOK JACKET.

Die Jahre 1967/68 waren eine Zeit des Aufbruchs, die Peter Schneider und viele seiner Generation als eine zweite Geburt erlebten. Schneider blättert in seinen Tagebuch-Aufzeichnungen und setzt sich mit den Hoffnungen, Utopien und Verstiegenheiten dieser Zeit auseinander. Es ist kein nostalgischer Rückblick, der da entsteht - eher ein Streitgespräch des 68-Jährigen mit dem 68er über den Frühling vor dem deutschen Herbst. Dabei wird Ernst gemacht mit dem Anspruch, alles Politische sei privat und umgekehrt. In Schneiders Darstellung verschränkt sich der weltweite Aufbruch von 67/68, der der Generation der Väter den Gehorsam verweigerte und eine neue Gesellschaft nach neuen Regeln erschaffen wollte, und eine Amour fou, die den Tagebuchschreiber womöglich mehr umwühlte als seine revolutionären Überzeugungen; der Widerstreit zwischen Künstlerehrgeiz und politischem Aktivismus; das Nebeneinander von Welterlösungsideen und tiefer persönlicher Verzweiflung; der Absturz einer historisch notwendigen Erneuerungsbewegung in persönliche ideologische Erstarrung. (Quelle: [Perlentaucher](

In his first novel, Couplings, Schneider turns his sharp eyes on the difficulties of love in the peculiar construct that was preunification Berlin. Eduard, a molecular biologist living in West Berlin, keeps a notebook entitled "A Concise Treatise on the Average Half-life of Love Relationships." The data he collects in it support only one conclusion: a strain of separation virus is raging in the walled city. "An initial rough estimate suggested that any given relationship had a maximum average life expectancy of three years, one hundred and sixty seven days, and two hours.". With his friends Andre, an international composer, and Theo, a writer from East Berlin, Eduard makes a pact to fight the "dragon of separation" that seems to reign in Berlin. The man who fails to show up in a year with his current partner will finance an entire ski vacation for six people. Eduard vows to father six children with Klara; Andre, to marry Esther; and Theo, to have no connubial contact with his wife, Pauline. Of course nothing turns out as expected in this surprising and witty look at how the generation that came of age and rebelled in the sixties is coping with love and commitment.

Clarifies the confusing reality of the new Germany, the symbol no longer of postwar rifts but of a new political order.

A "longtime Berliner's ... exploration of the heterogeneous allure of this vibrant city. Delving beneath the obvious answers--Berlin's club scene, bolstered by the lack of a mandatory closing time; the artistic communities that thrive due to the relatively low (for now) cost of living--Schneider takes us on an insider's tour of this rapidly metamorphosing metropolis, where high-class soirees are held at construction sites and enterprising individuals often accomplish more without public funding--assembling a makeshift club on the banks of the Spree River--than Berlin's officials do"--Provided by publisher.