description: Klaus Uhltzscht has always tried his best to serve his nation -- and to please his parents. Born in 1968 in East Germany, as Soviet tanks roll into Czechoslovakia, Klaus grows up across the street from the Ministry of State Security, and he is inspired early on to do his share to win the Cold War. Naturally he joins the secret police, but his glorious career as an international agent never materializes. Instead, he spends countless hours keeping his fellow citizens under close surveillance -- never quite sure what he is looking for. His mother, the goddess of hygiene, and his father, who might also work for the Stasi, do their best to keep his bodily functions and especially his sexual urges under equally close observation and control. Frustrated on all fronts, Klaus's life is changed only when a strange accident in the fall of 1989 dramatically alters the size of his penis.
language: French
title: Le Complexe de Klaus
titlecomplete: Le Complexe de Klaus
genres: Drama, Comedy, Humor, Novels, German Literature, Germany, 20th Century, Contemporary, Fiction
ratings_count: 565
places: Berlin
awards: awardedAt: 883641600000
name: Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize
category: John Brownjohn, awardedAt: 915177600000
name: Schlegel-Tieck Prize
category: John Brownjohn
publisher: ALBIN MICHEL