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Ralf Rothmann. Milch and Kohle. Frankfurt a.M. Suhrkamp. 2000. 211 pages. DM 36. ISBN 3-518-41126-8.
RALF ROTHMANN'S NEWEST WORK contiues a series of novels that includes Stier (1991), Waldernacht (1994; see WLT 69:4, p. 782), and Flieh, mein Freund (1998; see WLT 73:1, p. 139). The author was born in Schleswig in 1953 and raised in the Ruhr district, and Milch and Kohle tells the story of a German teenager, Simon, his family, friends, and acquaintances. The book takes place in northwest Germany's industrial heartland during the 1960s and undoubtedly is based on much of what its author experienced there himself as an adolescent.
The work's title refers to the family's postwar move from rural northeastern Germany,...