Better Than Ever

Novel
Translation SampleSuhrkamp | Insel
Rights sold to:

France (Gallimard)

 


Better Than Ever / Schöner denn je
Novel
How life does not succeed but we have to live it anyway– told in a lucid, weightless narrative style

»Insults were, considered on the whole and in view of life overall, probable and expectable. It wasn’t the insults one received that were surprising but the reparations.«

To be like Erik just once! That’s what Andreas has always wanted, and that’s why he has been trying to make friends with Erik – always polite, enviably relaxed, but ultimately unapproachable – since they were teenagers. But Erik is not only better when it comes to grades, popularity with girls or sports.


Twenty years later, when they meet by chance in Berlin, Andreas is just a Romance philologist and teacher in training while Erik has made it as a set designer in the glamorous...

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To be like Erik just once! That’s what Andreas has always wanted, and that’s why he has been trying to make friends with Erik – always polite, enviably relaxed, but ultimately unapproachable – since they were teenagers. But Erik is not only better when it comes to grades, popularity with girls or sports.


Twenty years later, when they meet by chance in Berlin, Andreas is just a Romance philologist and teacher in training while Erik has made it as a set designer in the glamorous world of Hollywood and has become close to famous movie stars – such as Hélène, a world-famous actress whom Andreas has had a crush on all his life. Without ever suspecting that Hélène, of all people, would be the one to leave the movie screen and walk into his life, in the flesh, for a few days. Thanks to Erik, certainly, but without him.

Better Than Ever is a trenchant, affectionately laconic novel. With his unique dry humour Hans-Ulrich Treichel lets his wistfully wavering hero, Andreas Reiss, roam within the walls of West Berlin – a melancholic who does things shortly after professing that it would be better not to do them. And just as with Chekhov’s gun you can be sure that in the end everything will have been relevant.

»Woven through with mystery and ambiguity […] [Treichel] evinces an accomplished art of understatement. His Andreas Reiss is a literary brother of Emmanuel Bove's hieratic heroes. The humour here is softly spoken and with a tendency toward cruelty, the reverie bittersweet. The passage of time is merciless.« Olivier Mony, Livres Hebdo

»Hans-Ulrich Treichel’s books are a testament to the fact that we know nothing, least of all about ourselves.« Neue Zürcher Zeitung

»While reading, one enjoys the cinematic precision of the scenes and dialogues and above all the proven Treichel sound ...« Wolfgang Schneider, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»This time, more so than in his previous books, Hans-Ulrich Treichel relies on perfect dramaturgy. He carefully lays his tracks from the beginning, hints at connections that turn out to be well-oiled plot machines in the course of the story, and builds his novel according to classical narrative principles.« Hilmar Klute, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»Treichel’s quiet self-irony is the perfect pitch for this story about life plans and their failure, about illusions and projections that inevitably creep into our narratives about ourselves.« Richard Kämmerlings, Welt am Sonntag

»The way Treichel guides his main character around the triumph in the competition that is life and in doing so makes use of all psychological possibilities make this short novel ... a pleasure to read.« Michael Hametner, der Freitag

»In Better than Ever dares venture into the fairytale-like. He overcomes the boundary between film and reality.« Cornelia Geissler, BLZ

»Treichel's comedy arises from the meticulous precision of even the most outlandish discussions and reflections. [...] The precision of all the reflections, affirmations and declarations of intent, which then come to nothing, is a sophisticated narrative calculation.« Jörg Magenau, DLF Kultur

»A thoroughly psychoanalytical read, shaped by Hans-Ulrich Treichel’s unmistakable dry humour. ... It all makes for a delightful read ...« Claudia Ingenhoven, MDR

»Woven through with mystery and ambiguity […] [Treichel] evinces an accomplished art of understatement. His Andreas Reiss is a literary brother of Emmanuel Bove's hieratic heroes. The humour here is softly spoken and with a tendency toward cruelty, the reverie bittersweet. The passage of time is merciless.« Olivier Mony, Livres Hebdo

»Hans-Ulrich Treichel’s books are a testament to the fact that we know nothing, least of all about ourselves.« Neue Zürcher...

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2021, 175 pages

Persons

Hans-Ulrich Treichel was born in Versmold, Westphalia, in 1952. He now lives in Berlin and Leipzig and was professor of German Literature at the University of Leipzig. His works have been translated into 28 languages.

Hans-Ulrich Treichel was born in Versmold, Westphalia, in 1952. He now lives in Berlin and Leipzig and was professor of German Literature at the...


OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Daybreak
Year of Publication: 2016
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2016

Daybreak leads into the centre of Hans-Ulrich Treichel’s writings, up and close to the pain points of loss and forlornness. This is the powerful, doleful story of a woman who...

Rights sold to:

France (Gallimard)

Early Disturbance
Year of Publication: 2014
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2014
Hans-Ulrich Treichel tells the story of Franz, whose life is weighed down by his pathological attachment to his mother. Mother, mother: he simply cannot shake that constant buzzing in his head. Not on his therapist’s couch, not in Berlin, his childhood home, not while travelling, not in his relationship with Andrea.


Early Disturbance is the story of a...

Grunewaldsee
Year of Publication: 2010
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2010
On an olive-strewn seaside property in Spain and the dog urine-steeped beaches of the Grunewaldsee, bestselling author Hans-Ulrich Treichel weaves his two characters into a love story. It is...
Rights sold to:

France (Gallimard)

Anatolin
Year of Publication: 2008
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2008
In search of his own memories, the hero of this cheerful-melancholy novel realizes that an »autobiographical evacuation« has taken place. His lost brother dominates his childhood,...
Rights sold to:

France (Gallimard), Poland (Czytelnik)

The Pope I knew
Year of Publication: 2007
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2007
»I could also say that I speak English as well as I play the piano. And I do play the piano very well. Enviably well. English has always been my first foreign language and Italian only my third. So you can figure out how well I play the piano when I tell you that the Italian that I speak better than quite a number of Italians is only my third foreign language.«


Of course he knew Pope John...
A Man's Flight
Year of Publication: 2005
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2005
Not every wish has to come true. Even an academic can be happy. For a time, at least. But shortly before his 52th birthday, Stephan begins to be haunted by unusual fears and dreams and besides there...
Rights sold to:

France (Gallimard)

Earthly Amor
Year of Publication: 2002
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2002
When Albert meets the beautiful Elena he falls head over heels in love. Is she the woman he wishes to share his life with, the woman he has always sought, and will she, after he has hesitated...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Pantheon), Chinese simplex rights (People’s Literature Publishing House), Russia (AST), France (Hachette), Italy (Neri Pozza), Netherlands (Ambo|Anthos), Denmark (Lindhardt & Ringhof), Norway (Pax), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Turkey (Iletisim)

Trista­nakko­­rd
Year of Publication: 2000
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 2000

Rights sold to:

Denmark (Lindhardt & Ringhof)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Galaxia Gutenberg), Russia (Limbus), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia das Letras), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Ambo|Anthos), Sweden (Wahlström & Widstrand), Norway (Pax), Poland (Czytelnik), Lithuania (Alma Littera)

Lost
Year of Publication: 1998
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 1998
»Not since The Reader has a work of fiction so stunningly evoked the guilt and shame that resounds in postwar Germany. In this debut novel of astonishing originality, we bear witness to a...
Rights sold to:

USA (Pantheon), Denmark (Lindhardt & Ringhof), Lithuania (Sofoklis), Slovenia (Družina)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: UK (Picador), Spanish world rights (Galaxia Gutenberg), Catalan rights (Enciclopedia Catalana), Chinese complex rights (Eurasian Publ. Group), Russia (AST), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia das Letras), France (Hachette), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Ambo|Anthos), Sweden (Wahlström & Widstrand), Norway (Pax), Finland (Söderström), Iceland (Mal og menning), Korea (Chaeksesang), Thailand (schau-Thai), Poland (Czytelnik), Slovakia (Slovart), Hungary (Europa), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Croatia (Croatian Philological Ass.), Turkey (Ayrinti), Greece (Periplous), Albania (K&B), Ukraine (Tandem), Israel (Achuzat Bayit)

Der einzi­ge Gast
Year of Publication: 1994
Hans-Ulrich TreichelYear of Publication: 1994


DISCOVER

News
12.08.2022
»Treichel is a light-footed narrator who vanquishes the impositions of existence with great humour.« Jörg Magenau, taz. die tageszeitung