Herrndorf intended his incomplete, wholly unpublished works to be destroyed after his death, stipulating as much in his will. But a wealth of other texts seeped out into the world during his lifetime that avoided wider attention and was printed in far-off places or used only at readings. Many were released via the internet; Herrndorf was a member of an internet forum named “Wir höflichen Paparazzi” (“We, the polite Paparazzi”) alongside successful authors like Kathrin Passig and Klaus Cäsar Zehrer. Another member, Tex Rubinowitz, called it “a hard-as-nails Stalinist writing school”. Everyone involved agreed that Herrndorf was the harshest critic of his own and others’ writing. He often wrote under the pseudonym “Stimmen” (“Voices”).
This volume presents a wealth of material that sometimes reminds us of Plush Storms, sometimes of Tschick. Still others are reminiscent of the magical mnemonic fragments of his last book, Work and Structure. The texts compiled here include a tale of a journey in an old, stolen car (but not by kids, and not in a Lada), while Herrndorf gets lost on his bike at night in a forest, reminding us of Isa’s wanderings in the moonlight. This is no collection of documents or relics.
This – even Herrndorf’s unfinished writings – is literature, placed by the author himself in the tradition of the Romantic fragment. Voices is a treasure trove for all fans of Herrndorf’s work.
