A motivated young teacher encounters two failed existences; an experiment which at first appears harmless becomes a grotesque drama of everyday school life.
Schiefer is passionate about playing chess, and at least as passionate about annoying his opponents with lengthy explanations of the theories he has developed concerning the game. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he used to be a teacher. Why, as a schoolteacher, did he continually feel like a desperate hamster stuck on its wheel? This huge failure in his life remains a festering wound, particularly as he has achieved precious little in the meantime. He even has to sublet his apartment to get by. As fate would have it, he takes in a lodger who happens to be a young teacher about to take over a class, well armed with an education fresh out of the encyclopaedia, didactic training and high ideals.
Schiefer decides to sound the man out, but the situation escalates. He becomes obsessive about keeping tabs on the young teacher, and calls in the help of his chess partner, a private detective with the most modern security equipment at his disposal. Soon, the whole school is bugged. A scenario that has been carefully planned like the moves in a chess game takes its course, turning into a dynamic tragicomedy. Weyand holds a distorting mirror before the reality of everyday school life, revealing the hopes and despair of life as a schoolteacher.
»A great show. Rating: excellent.«
Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Radio)
on Kai Weyand`s debut
The Author
Kai Weyand, born in 1968. For his book »Am Dienstag stürzen die Neubauten ein. Erzählungen« (The New Buildings will Fall Down on Tuesday, Wallstein, 2005), he was awarded 1st prize at the open mike of the LiteraturWERKstatt in Berlin. Also awarded the Irseer Pegasus and Bolero Literature Prize Zurich. The author lives in Freiburg.
