The Hothouse

On the anniversary of Wolfgang Koeppen’s 120th year, the two remaining works in his postwar trilogy in Michael Hofmann’s spectacular translation

The Hothouse traces the tragic final two days in the life of a minor German politician, Keetenheuve, a man disillusioned by the corruption of his country after World War II. Following his self-imposed exile during the war, Keetenheuve returns to the hothouse: the city of Bonn, the capital of that new postwar capitalist nation, West Germany. Until th...