Eurotrash

A probing masterpiece-in-miniature of self-reflection and cultural reckoning.From "the great German-language writer of his generation" (Joshua Cohen) comes the second novel of Christian Kracht's career narrated by an eponymous "Christian" (the first was his best-selling debut, Faserland). Eurotrash begins in Zurich, where Christian has returned to care for his 80-year-old mother after her discharge from a psychiatric institution. Confronting the dark shadows of his family's past-particularly his grandfather's strong ties with the Nazi regime-and struggling to navigate the emotionally wrenching terrain of his relationship with his mother, he sets off on a road trip with her. As they traverse Switzerland together in a hired cab, mother and son attempt to give away her vast fortune, stuffed in a large plastic bag, to random strangers.By turns disturbing, disorienting, hilarious, and poignant, and brilliantly rendered in English by prize-winning translator Daniel Bowles, Eurotrash tells an intensely personal and unsparingly critical story of contemporary culture; a story that shows us a writer at the pinnacle of his powers of insight and observation.