By Markus Tschiedert
For years, Martin Muser (58) dealt with murder and manslaughter, diligently wrote crime novels (“Granitfresse”) and screenplays for police series such as “Der Alte” and “SOKO Donau”.
Until he published his first children’s book “Kannawoniwasein!” (Carlsen-Verlag, 7.99 euros) in 2018, which became an instant hit. After an audio book, several awards and two sequels, the movie is now coming.
From August 17th, 2023 we experience the two main characters Finn (9) and Lola (12) on the screen on an adventurous journey from Neustrelitz to Berlin, on which they meet bizarre adults and have to find Finn’s stolen backpack. “In 2012 I read about a child without a ticket who was put off the train,” the Kreuzberg author recalls: “That was the start of my story, except that the ticket wasn’t lost, it was stolen.”
It was only later that he noticed that it began in a similar way to Erich Kästner’s classic children’s book “Emil and the Detectives”: “It didn’t bother me because stories are always inspired by what already exists.” Muser’s book took a hit after the theft different direction and develops into a road movie.
The story lent itself to being filmed, and the writer used the template to process his own childhood. Shy Finn is as he was as a boy, and perky Jola is as he would have liked to be. “She can’t be offered anything. In the past, you would have said ‘ne kesse Summse’ in Berlin dialect,” he says with a grin. Born in Swabia, he has a thing for rough jargon. “The title alone is a nod to the Berlin-Brandenburg dialect,” he explains. In the book and film, it’s mainly the adults who talk like this and often react to the kids’ actions with “being canna-woni”. As the saying goes, “That can’t possibly be true”.
The children’s book “Kannawoniwasein!” was filmed with Miran Selcuk and Lotte Engels Photo: Carlsen Verlag
Incidentally, that’s how Carlsen-Verlag initially reacted. How would a tapeworm word be received by young readers? “But I thought that was catchy, and my daughters agreed with me,” says Muser about the beginnings: “In fact, I not only wanted to write a book that I would have liked as a child, but also one that my children would have liked would read. But when the novel finally came out, they were already 16 and 18.” But he always had his girls involved in his work anyway. “When they learned to read, they even found screenplays really interesting,” he admits: “But now I have to pay my daughters for them – minimum wage!”
Muser, who has lived in Berlin since 1987 and studied at the University of the Arts, has now succumbed to the dark side again. His last novel “Weil” (13 euros, Carlsen-Verlag) was published in January. A psychological thriller about young people who travel to the countryside where they experience violence and terror. In addition to thrillers, he also wants to continue writing children’s books. He especially loves to read them to his little fans himself.
He himself loved “Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt” as a boy, and later “The three ???”. “Because of these books, I wanted to be either an inventor or a detective,” Muser laughs: “During a reading, a child once said to me: ‘You’ve become both. Inventor because you make up stories and detective because you also write detective stories.’”