Koala

An ordinary person, his ordinary life and his ordinary ending. But nothing about this story in Lukas Bärfuss’ new novel seems ordinary. Because the end is a suicide, and the one who committed it is his brother. Bärfuss traces the fate of his brother, about whom he initially knows little. And he encounters great silence. The topic seems to be a major taboo., which also holds a secret. Why did his friends call him koala? An intellectually far-reaching novel that goes beyond the question of why someone deliberately sought death but asks: What are the reasons for choosing life?