The Terrible Zebra
Photos and Their Stories
Published by Diogenes as Das schreckliche Zebra
Original Title: Das schreckliche Zebra

Old photos that inspire the imagination of the contemporary viewer in a captivating way. Veering from strange to touching, they continually pose the question: What on earth was going on? Klaus Cäsar Zehrer was inspired by pictures like these to create short stories, scenes and poems – from tender to ruthless, from poetic to unreservedly silly. And Shakespeare’s 155th love sonnet is in there too.

Contemporary Literature
256 pages
2022

978-3-257-07164-1
Klaus Cäsar
Zehrer

Klaus Cäsar Zehrer, born in Schwabach in 1969, lives in Berlin as a freelance writer, editor and translator. His first book with Diogenes Verlag, The Genius, was named the best debut novel of 2017 by the literary blogging collective Das Debüt. Klaus Cäsar Zehrer has a doctorate in Cultural Studies, and edited, together with Robert Gernhard, the classic work of comic verse Hell und Schnell. He also plays for the German national writers’ football team.

Photo: Steffi Roßdeutscher/ © Diogenes Verlag

Quotes

Rolf Hürzeler
Die Weltwoche, Zurich

»Klaus Caesar Zehrer resists the temptation of becoming scornful by making imaginative digressions in the style of his hero Robert Gernhardt.«