You might have noticed: Hendrik Otremba is not only the singer of the formidable post-punk band Messer. He is also a visual artist, lecturer, journalist and writer. As such, he has already published two novels, “Über uns der Schaum” (Verbrecher Verlag) and “Kachelbads Erbe” (Hoffmann and Campe). Now the third is imminent: “Benito”, the title, will be published by March Verlag on August 31, 2022.
What is it about? The publisher’s synopsis reads as follows:
“In 1995, eleven-year-old Cherubim went on a three-week canoe trip down a West German river with his scout group. They all have evocative ride names like Kippe, Maus and Fliestöter. They call their leader, a few years older than them, chief. The further the river carries them, the closer Cherubim feels to the others, the more he forgets his home. Only his recently separated parents are waiting for him there anyway, the mother is overwhelmed and the father is depressed. He develops an increasingly obsessive interest in blind Benito, with whom he shares one of the boats.
Then a terrible misfortune happens: the leader is killed in a hunting accident, whereupon the boys, almost mad, continue the river trip without him. They get deeper and deeper into a disturbing world. The childish adventure turns into a surreal nightmare. In the process, Benito undergoes a radical change: the boy, who was introverted at the beginning, increasingly indulges in increasingly angry monologues that denounce the wrong path of civilization. The quiet boy becomes a fatalistic prophet, a blind, apocalyptic seer.
Three decades later, the cherubim has become a well-known writer who comes to Bonn following a mysterious invitation. On the day of the reception at the well-known Hotel Paradies, which is visited by a large number of prominent people from politics, business and show business, a masked man stormed the Eden room, locked the 300 guests inside and shot wildly for minutes. Miraculously, nobody gets hurt. Cherubim quickly understands that the assassination was only faked and staged with a lot of pomp. And didn’t Benito drag his left leg just like the assassin did?
As a result, he embarks on a search for clues through the Ruhr area, reflects on the myths of the old FRG and has to realize more and more that the high-profile mystery he witnessed in Bonn is closely intertwined with the events of his childhood. So the search for the truth also becomes a search for his own past.”
Journalist Arno Frank, also an author for the Musikexpress, has this to say about “Benito”: “An epic about boy scouts, a blind gunman and the ghosts of the Federal Republic. In this existential journey through time, Hendrik Otremba tells a complex story against the darkness and exhausts all the possibilities of literature.”
Hendrik Otremba also goes on a reading tour with his book. Here are the confirmed dates:
- Berlin, September 1, 2022, Writer’s Thursday @ Borchardt
- Berlin, September 14, 2022, 8 p.m., LCB am Wannsee
- Nuremberg, September 29, 7:00 p.m., Z building
- Ulm, September 30, 7:00 p.m., Aegis bookstore
- Cologne, October 22, 7:00 p.m., King Georg
Hendrik Otremba was born in Recklinghausen in 1984 and lives in Berlin. With his band Messer, founded in Münster, he has released five albums to date. The debut IM SCHWINDEL was released in 2012. At the end of 2013, THE INVISIBLE followed. In 2016 they followed up with JALOUSIE, followed by NO FUTURE DAYS in 2020. A kind of remix of this was released in 2021: the Finnish producer and friend of the group Kimmo Saastamoinen aka Toto Belmont re-edited the latest Messer songs under the name NO FUTURE DUBS interpreted.
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