Die rechtschaffenen Mörder

"In the Dresden district of Blasewitz there once lived an antiquarian bookseller ..."

- With this almost fairytale-like introduction, Ingo Schulze's new novel begins, centring on the story of the bookseller Norbert Paulini.

This Paulini wants only one thing: to be a reader. Step by step, the bizarre young man becomes a respected intellectual who supplies a small intellectual elite in the GDR with his antiquarian books. He is considered a famous dissident, but he refuses to get involved with day-to-day politics during the Wende. In the new reality after 1989, Paulini is impoverished, because now all books are freely available on the market. The antiquarian feels betrayed by his protégés; he becomes embittered and increasingly adopts extreme right-wing positions...