German / Germany
Der Vogelschorsch. Ein Roman
(Vogelschorsch. A novel)
Wirlinger, Hannes
(text)
Möltgen, Ulrike
(illus.)
Berlin: Jacoby & Stuart, [2019]. – 301 p.
ISBN 978-3-96428-031-2
Outsider | Friendship | Jealousy | Mystery | Death
Reading age: 12+
White Ravens issue: 2020
“Vogelschorsch (Bird-George) was as different as can be.” The seventeen-year-old boy with his long old coat and his peculiar hairstyle seems to be from a different era. Even when there is a slight smile on his lips, he is always surrounded by an aura of melancholy and enigma. To animals, he feels close, whereas with people, it is difficult. Lena tells the story of Vogelschorsch with a keen sense for human interaction. She is fascinated by his sensitivity and his otherness. The special relationship that develops between the two teens confuses Lena’s friends. In “Vogelschorsch”, Hannes Wirlinger has created a unique gem of a character – a truly unconventional figure, the likes of which are rare in German-language youth literature. Clearly reminiscent of characters by renowned 19th-century German writer Georg Büchner, Vogelschorsch is a nonconformist who doesn’t intend to provoke, but cannot help himself. Ulrike Möltgen’s pictures, too, express how Vogelschorsch’s desperate attempts to cope with loss make him lose himself. [IG]