Hartmut Lange’s novellas present crises and sensitivities in clear, dense prose and are unique in German contemporary literature. They deal with the focal points of life: love – fear – death.

The Prorer Wiek is a bay on the island of Rugen, where the coastal resort of Binz is located, which is famed for its sophistication. And that glamorous history makes it an impressive backdrop for five novellas of unexpected encounters, disappointments and emotional crises.

Five more novellas are set in Rome, a very different but no less intense setting for life’s ultimate questions. And even the ›eternal city‹ – how invulnerable is it really to transience, the deepest human humiliation?

Ten precipitous novellas of melancholy beauty about what once was and what still thrives, about famous pictures, philosophical consolation and the crutch of common sense. And above all about the question: what endures?