9781582341514

Your Satisfaction is Guaranteed:

• 30 Day Return Policy
• Bookseller Guarantee
• Privacy & Security Policy

A grand and comic story of midlife crises and dubious spiritual quests.
World-weary Fred Kaufmann is in the midst of a classic midlife crisis. Long ago exchanging his dreams of becoming a celebrated film director, he settled for marriage to tidy-minded, thoroughly competent Claudia, with whom he has become materially successful but spiritually dissatisfied. Claudia finds solace in her guru, while their sullen teenage daughter, Franka, falls for a lama and plans to move to India. In an attempt to dissuade their daughter from running off, Fred takes her to a meditation center in the south of France with the hope that closer acquaintance with the Buddhist way of life will wean her back to her senses. When they arrive they are greeted with the injunction: YOU HAVE ARRIVED. ENJOY YOUR BREATH. KEEP SILENT. Fred is in for all sorts of surprises as one plot twist after another brings him face to face with himself.

"With his detached, eminently humane, honest, and bitingly funny narration, Fred makes an unerringly entertaining companion--and he even finds wisdom in Buddhist teachings, despite his best efforts to remain crass and ironic."

Kirkus, 05/15/2001

"In Doris Dörrie's darkly comic novel, Germany's countercultural past hangs like a storm-cloud in a rear-view mirror....John Brownjohn's translation renders the novel's mordant comic observations into a brisk and suitably deadpan English."

Brian Dillon, Times Literary Supplement, 07/20/2001

Where Do We Go from Here?: Search Results