MUSEUM OF CLUES

  • Vibrant, clever, and wildly entertaining.
  • A novel about the struggle to make sense of the world, but also about work, growing older, and other everyday abysses.
  • Ulrike Sterblich’s previous novel Drifter was shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2023 and sold 20,000 copies.

Bärbel Krabbe works in the property management department of a real estate firm; her daughter Luzi has just finished her law degree and recently moved out. The year is 1999. The colleague in charge of IT is tasked with preventing the looming Millennium Bug - and stumbles upon serious irregularities in the process. While the situation at Bärbel’s company escalates, Luzi loses herself in the world of conspiracy theories.

Modern fairy tales and myths, delusions, incompetence, and genuine criminal machinations tangle into a thicket where even our two otherwise pragmatic protagonists eventually lose their bearings. Almost.

Vibrant, clever, and wildly entertaining, Ulrike Sterblich tells the story of how people try to bring meaning and order to a chaotic world while work, daily routine, and transience shake them to the core. And how they fail at it - in the most highly productive way.

Contact Foreign Rights
  • Publisher: Rowohlt Hundert Augen
  • Release: 13.11.2026
  • ISBN: 978-3-498-00750-8
  • 288 Pages
  • Author: Ulrike Sterblich

Our covers may only be used free of charge for press, event and promotional purposes in connection with the title or author. In particular, it is not permitted to use the covers in connection with other products, goods or services. The covers may only be reproduced faithfully in their original, unaltered form and must not be edited.

Buchcover von MUSEUM OF CLUES
Ulrike SterblichMUSEUM OF CLUES
Portrait von Ulrike Sterblich
© Dorothea Tuch
Ulrike Sterblich

Ulrike Sterblich , political scientist and author from Berlin (West), continues to live in her hometown where she also became known as hostess of the talk and literary event "Berlin Bunny Lectures". In 2012, her successful memoir  Die halbe Stadt, die es nicht mehr gibt  was published. In 2021, Ulrike Sterblich published her highly acclaimed debut, The German Girl.