Von einem, der auszog, um nicht verrückt zu werden
LEON ENGLER
Botanik des Wahnsinns /Botany of Madness
A Novel, 208 pagesAugust 2025
English sample available
“Irresistible. A book that is at once grave and light, tender and tough, satirical and earnest.” Siri Hustvedt
“A fantastic book—profound yet comforting. I devoured it.”Doris Dörrie
Selected for New Books In German
A tragicomic family novel that tells of the supposedly crazy and the allegedly normal.
Leon Engler's debut is a tender stroke of liberation, a story of reconciliation.
About Someone Who Set Out Not to Go Mad
A young man suffers from a panicky fear of going insane. No wonder, as a stay in a psychiatric hospital is almost normal in his family. In biology class, he learns about heredity. The offspring of titmice are titmice. The offspring of pumpkins are pumpkins. So what are the offspring of his depressive father, his alcoholic mother, his schizophrenic grandfather, and his bipolar grandmother? He makes an initial calculation. Depression: forty percent hereditary. Alcohol dependence: fifty percent hereditary. Bipolar disorder: eighty percent hereditary. The prognosis? One hundred percent bad. He tries to escape: to New York, to Paris, to Vienna. He tries to attack: he becomes a psychologist and works in psychiatry. Right there, where he never wanted to be, he sees his family's history in a new light.
Rights sold to: Gyldendal (Danish; Feltrinelli Gramma (Italian);
Botanik des Wahnsinns /Botany of Madness
A Novel, 208 pagesAugust 2025
English sample available
“Irresistible. A book that is at once grave and light, tender and tough, satirical and earnest.” Siri Hustvedt
“A fantastic book—profound yet comforting. I devoured it.”Doris Dörrie
Selected for New Books In German
A tragicomic family novel that tells of the supposedly crazy and the allegedly normal.
Leon Engler's debut is a tender stroke of liberation, a story of reconciliation.
About Someone Who Set Out Not to Go Mad
A young man suffers from a panicky fear of going insane. No wonder, as a stay in a psychiatric hospital is almost normal in his family. In biology class, he learns about heredity. The offspring of titmice are titmice. The offspring of pumpkins are pumpkins. So what are the offspring of his depressive father, his alcoholic mother, his schizophrenic grandfather, and his bipolar grandmother? He makes an initial calculation. Depression: forty percent hereditary. Alcohol dependence: fifty percent hereditary. Bipolar disorder: eighty percent hereditary. The prognosis? One hundred percent bad. He tries to escape: to New York, to Paris, to Vienna. He tries to attack: he becomes a psychologist and works in psychiatry. Right there, where he never wanted to be, he sees his family's history in a new light.
Rights sold to: Gyldendal (Danish; Feltrinelli Gramma (Italian);