Recently at the Pissrinne: Andreas Maier philosophizes about his homeland – literature

“Home was born at the Pißrinne. It’s number 9 for me”: The new book by the German author Andreas Maier begins with this somewhat cryptic sentence. And straight to the explanation for everyone who is not so familiar with the Andreas Maier cosmos, Homeland is the ninth part of his cycle published by Suhrkamp bypass, a kind of coherent autofictional novel regarding his hometown of Wetterau, which has appeared in the following slim volumes and in seemingly ever-expanding concentric circles: The room, the house, the street, the place, the circle, the university, the family, the cities and now Homeland. Maier always integrates us, who read his books, into his writing project: “The note with the eleven titles is hanging on the wall opposite the desk,” he lets us know, but not which two book titles the Hometown will follow. The author will not deviate from the note, Maier, born in 1967, has been following his self-imposed strict formal concept for years.