Raw Material
Published by Diogenes as Rohstoff
Original Title: Rohstoff

Jörg Fauser’s autobiographical masterpiece now in a new edition.

»That summer, drugs were cheaper than books, unless you wrote them yourself.«

Harry Gelb’s raw materials are opium on an Istanbul rooftop and LSD in a Berlin commune, heroin in a Göttingen garret and countless beers in the pubs of Frankfurt. Above all, however, his raw material is writing itself.

Fast-paced, brutally honest and funny, Fauser’s alter ego tells us of a dangerous and endangered youth and a man who never forgets – either as a night watchman or as an airport worker – what he wants to be: a writer.

With a foreword by Michael Köhlmeier, and an afterword by Matthias Penzel.

Contemporary Literature
352 pages
2019

978-3-257-07034-7
Jörg
Fauser

Jörg Fauser (1944 – 1987) was born near Frankfurt. After dropping out of university, he spent some years living in Istanbul and London, making a living in office jobs, as an airport worker and night watchman, among other things. In 1974, he switched to writing. His novels, poems, newspaper articles and short stories occupy an exceptional position in German literature. Jörg Fauser died in an accident on a motorway near Munich on the night after his birthday.

»At first, I didn’t want to become a professional writer, I just wanted to write. I imagined a normal existence while producing a few eternal things on the side.«
Jörg Fauser

Photo: Fauser Archiv

Quotes

DBC Pierre
(Australian author)

»Bukowski meets Withnail on schnapps. As beautiful a mess as the characters he wrote, Jörg Fauser's trawl through the anarchist squats of the 70s lays bare the seeds of Germany's new cool. While we were still making war films, Fauser ran with a generation intent on destroying the state and itself; through the voice of Harry Gelb his savage wit leaves no truth unturned in describing its most foibled and hopeless endeavour - decadent revolution. This book makes me wish I was there. «

Barry Miles
(English author)

»Fauser drank more beer than Bukowski and shot more heroin than William Burroughs. Sad, funny, cynical and deeply authentic, it's the best novel of the period I've ever read.«

Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre
(German author)

»One of the best German novels ever written.«

Niall Griffiths
(English author)

»Like nothing you've read before. [. . .] a crazed, leaping, unmoored and hilarious voyage.«

Nik Cohn
(British rock journalist)

»Cracking - nothing more needs to be said.«

Michel Decar
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich

»... the master of West-German pulp. [...] [Raw Material is] one of the best German novels of the 20th century.«

 

Julia Encke
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung

»But the beat [...] goes on.«

 

Tages-Anzeiger, Zurich

»It is only after the author’s death that his importance was recognized.«

 

Ijoma Mangold
SWR Fernsehen

»Every chapter has such a fast pace, a punch line, and a psychologically clear view, that it is a pleasure to read.«

 

Denis Scheck
(German literary critic)

»This is about sex, about drugs, about a satire on Germany, in other words: absolutely compulsory reading in schools!«

Philipp Haibach
Die Welt, Berlin

»This author’s absence is noticeable.«

 

Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag

»As a mostly high as a kite writer, who struggles on as a removal man and night guard, he delivers an authentic image of the 68 generation.«

Andreas Schröter
Ruhr Nachrichten, Dortmund

»An immensely entertaining read, as well as an excellent document of the times around 1968.«

Helmut Böttiger
Die Republik, Zurich

»The ›Fauser sound‹ is suggestive and – because of the extreme setting – incredibly mood-enhancing.«

Leonie Berger
SWR 2, Stuttgart

»Jörg Fauser depicts his characters with a precise gaze: laconic and full of wit.«