Tobias Friedrich couldn’t believe that nobody had yet turned the amazing story of the Hamburg adventurer Oskar Speck into a novel. So the writer/songwriter insisted on doing just that.
In recent years, Tobias Friedrich has been responsible for some of the best German-language pop songs. They can be found on several singles and EPs that he recorded as “the thin man” together with Gisbert zu Knyphausen and the producer Moses Schneider under the project name Husten. His first novel, on which he worked for more than ten years, is now being published. “The Ringed Plover” tells the true story of Oskar Speck from Hamburg, who – although he didn’t swim – actually paddled in a collapsible boat from Ulm to Cyprus in 1932 in order to simply continue his journey from there, gripped by sporting ambition, and via Syria, Iran, Paddling India, Thailand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea to Australia. The National Socialists tried to claim him as a German hero, and the Australians finally arrested him as an enemy of the war. “The Little Ringed Plover” is an adventure novel of a kind that is no longer found very often in contemporary German literature – exciting, written in a stirring language, with great empathy and a lot of humour.
What was your last catchy tune?
Just got back: “Oh Dear Louis”, Samantha Crain
When was the last time you listened to an entire album? And which one?
Yesterday: color, “Water & Solutions”
Which (relatively) unknown album would you like to see a bigger audience?
Ed Harcourt, “The Beautiful Lie“
Which musician would you like to be for a day? And at what stage of her/his career?
Prince, “Sign O’ The Times”
Which song by another songwriter would you like to have written yourself?
How many books do I have space for? Let’s dive in blindly: “Fire Island” by Fountains of Wayne, or is it “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”, “Big Yellow Taxi”? “House Where Nobody Lives”, Tom Waits… or… stop! No! … sigh.
If you had written a novel with a truly evil protagonist, what music would he/she listen to?
Have I. Presumably my antagonist Konstanty von stick Listen to Richard Wagner, or Zarah Leander and Hans Albers.
What was the last really good book you read?
“Hotel of the Sleepless”, Ralf Rothmann
Which literary character would you like to have as a friend?
Holly Golightly (“breakfast at Tiffany”Truman Capote)
Which book another author/ another author would you like more readers?
“Pure gold” from John Patrick McHugh. short stories. Bisher, I think, only in Engappeared. First sentence of the first story: “That summer we lit fires. Terry other I.”
Which literary classic did you start but not finish and why?
“The Magic Mountain”, Thomas Mann. I didn’t have the strength for it.
Wie do you organize your bookshelf?
Some things stand, some lie on top, some in front of them, some are transported from place to place and never sorted. The approach is: alphabetical. But we’re talking about an alphabet that has fallen down the stairs several times.
What book on your bookshelf would surprise us?
Depends on the expectation. Maybe the missing ones. Just checked: The Bible (surprised myself).
How would you describe your new novel to a friend?
A true story like you would never make it up. In addition to an escalating escape/journey in a collapsible boat in the 1930s, it’s about friendships, longing, coincidences and the search for maximum freedom.
“The little ringed plover“ published by C.Bertelsmann.