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László Krasznahorkai: Herscht 07769 (Herscht 07769)
I must admit when I first saw this book title, I thought the title read Herrscht, the German for rules, making the title 07769 rules. In fact there is only one r and Herscht turns out to be the surname of our hero though I wonder if Krasznahorkai is making a play on the word. 07769 is Florian Herscht’s Postleitzahl, the German equivalent of the UK post code/US zip code.
Florian Herscht is a gentle giant. He is big. He is strong. He is somewhat simple. He is an orphan. We, and possibly he know nothing of his parents. He lives in Kana, a fictitious town in what was East Germany but now part of the Federal Republic of Germany. He had been learning to be a baker when he is picked up by a man known only as the Boss. The Boss gives him a job, a run down flat but his alone and therefore as his first ever flat, most welcome, and a meagre wage.
The Boss has two key roles. He runs a cleaning business which is where Florian comes in. They seem to do a lot of outside cleaning such as graffiti on walls. The boss is something of a tyrant but Florian is grateful for the flat. The Boss is also very much involved with the local neo-Nazis. They want to get rid of the migrants and the Jews and hang out in a rented room drinking and discussing their politics. Florian has not joined and has resisted joining, not least became he is afraid of the mandatory tattoo, though Florian does not seem to have political views.
While his fellow Nazis revere Hitler and other such Nazis, the Boss reveres the man he considers the epitome of Germanness – J S Bach. The area around Kana is Bach country. The patriarch of the Bach family – great-great-grandfather of J S Bach – Veit Bach moved there from Hungary and the family stayed in the area. The Boss is part of an orchestra that plays Bach (badly). Florian has been persuaded to attend to improve his musical ear.
Florian has two other mentors. Frau Ringer is the local librarian and he visits her a lot. She is in her forties and he looks on her as a sort of mother figure. We know nothing of his parents., only that he was an orphan and the Boss found him in an orphanage. She is concerned for him and is happy to mother him. The other key figure in his life is Herr Köhler. Herr Köhler teaches particle physics. He could perhaps have been a physicist but prefers teaching. He now teaches particle physics to adults in the basement of the local school. Florian has attended the course two years running as he only grasped a little the first time round. Moreover Herr Köhler has been happy for Florian to visit him every Thursday so he can explain things to him. Unfortunately, Florian is not too bright and has not fully grasped the difference between what physicists have come up with in theory and what actually happens in the real world, What happened in the Big Bang is still very much theory but it seems that a lot of particles and antiparticles met and cancelled each other out but there was a surplus which led to the creation of the universe but this could go wrong and annihilate everything. Florian is very concerned about this , so much so that it becomes a key issue in the book. Florian writes frequently to then German Chancellor Angela Merkel, warning her of this issue and telling her that she and other major world leaders should convene to solve the problem before the universe is annihilated. He only puts as his return address Herscht 07769. Florian is mocked for his letters and even more when he goes to Berlin to warn Merkel in person. Naturally he does not get to see her though he cannot understand why. Herr Köhler tries to dissuade Florian with no success. He tries to steer Florian away from physics and to his other interest, meteorology, again with no success. And then he – Herr Köhler – disappears.
Meanwhile the Boss has a problem. Someone has been spraying graffiti with a wolfhead symbol on various buildings associated with Bach. The Boss and Florian clean off the graffiti but the Boss is obsessed with catching the culprit who is undoubtedly, in his view, some immigrant so he and his fellow Nazis stake our likely targets. However there is another group opposed to the Boss and his friends, led by Herr Ringer, husband of Frau Ringer and he is convinced that the group he calls the
Florian knows quite a few people in town. They treat him both as something of a lost child but also take advantage of his great strength and willingness to help people he knows, so he does a variety of odd jobs around the town.
But gradually things are going to go wrong. The graffiti artist continues his dirty work to the Boss’s annoyance and fury, not least because his idea of staking out various sites associated with Bach is not successful. Then wolves seem to appear. One attacks Frau Ringer and others have been seen in the area. The forest warden insists wolves do not attack humans and only attack in packs. he Boss is convinced that the wolves are a plot to get rid of real Germans. Then there are various unexplained explosions in the region. People are killed.
As for Florian, he has discovered Bach. He now has a laptop and a music player and he can download and listen to Bach to his heart’s content. He even advises Angela Merkel to have Bach played everywhere. He is still loyal to the Boss and defends him when people suggest he is behind the explosions.
But this is Krasznahorkai and we know that this story is not going to go gentle into that good night. Inevitably we plunge into darkness with Florian, the Boss and most of the other main characters. Merkel, however, does step down, giving her time to write a letter.
Krasznahorkai gives us a rich portrait of small town Germany and we get to know quite a few of the inhabitants in detail, particularly though by no means entirely through their interactions with Florian. The Boss comes across as a nasty Nazi and Krasznahorkai makes fun of him, even if his love of Bach is a mildly redeeming characteristic. As for Florian, while we may consider him naive with his letter writing to Angela Merkel, is clearly a devoted, loyal, hard-working man, whom most people understandably like. He likes Bach. He enjoys sitting by the river listening to the water. He is always willing to help people and expects no payment. In short, like most people in Kana, we can admire him even if we might smile at his naivety. But, as mentioned, it all goes dark . Krasznahorkai, as always, gives us another superb account of the dark side of the human soul.
Publishing history
First published in 2021 by Magvető Kiadó
First English translation in 2024 by New Directions
Translated by Ottilie Mulzet