ON THE FELLING A FAMILIY TREE

  • Between care and abyss: a German-Polish family history that gets under your skin.
  • An impressive debut, a deeply moving autofictional mother-son novel.

A story of origin, told with intensity, untamed spirit, and affection.

Marcin grows up in precarious circumstances: his mother fled Poland for Germany in the 1980s to raise him, her second child, there. She works hard as an elderly caregiver, drinks too much, and eventually comes to see her son only as an antagonist. Meanwhile, Marcin tries to find out who he is and who he can be here in Germany, using video games, Nu Metal, and poetry. In this tension, the two live with and against one another.

It is only late in life - when his aging mother is seriously ill and Marcin cares for her - that the full family history is revealed: a life story suspended between anecdote and abyss. The war is not over. No war is ever over.

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  • Publisher: Rowohlt Hundert Augen
  • Release: 15.05.2026
  • ISBN: 978-3-498-00746-1
  • 464 Pages
  • Author: Martin Piekar

Awards

  • 2026: Martin Piekar mit «Vom Fällen eines Stammbaums» auf der Shortlist des ZDF-"aspekte"-Literaturpreises
  • 2026: Martin Piekar erhält mit «Vom Fällen eines Stammbaums» den Harbour Front Debütpreis

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Buchcover von ON THE FELLING A FAMILIY TREE
Martin PiekarON THE FELLING A FAMILIY TREE
Portrait von Martin Piekar
© Charlotte Werndt
Martin Piekar

Martin Piekar , born in Bad Soden am Taunus in 1990, is a writer, poet, and teacher who enjoys bringing his texts to the stage as much as to the page. He has published three collections of poetry: BASTARDECHO (2014), AMOKPERVERS (2018), and most recently, LIVESTREAM & LEICHEN (2023). At the 47th Days of German-Language Literature in Klagenfurt, he was awarded the KELAG Prize and the BKS Bank Audience Prize. For the manuscript of his debut novel, he received the Robert Gernhardt Prize in 2024 and was nominated for the Alfred Döblin Prize in 2025. Martin Piekar lives in Frankfurt am Main.