ABOUT
THE BOOK

Abandoned at birth because of fantastic facial deformities, the nameless hero and narrator of this remarkable novel has settled into a routine of living utterly alone, hiring the occasional “agency woman”, and collecting the occasional debt for Maestro, the aging patriarch of one of Berlin’s most infamous gangster families.
But when Hanna Woyczik becomes the leading witness to a crime that could affect the family’s hold on power, Maestro calls on our hero to perform the most difficult task imaginable: to move in with and guard Hanna for an entire week.
Part thriller and part fable, with a touch of slapstick thrown in, Guarding Hanna takes us through the inner life of a man who has never had to learn the basic rules of society. But when the simple tasks he must practice while with Hanna – such as conversing, drinking tea and buying toilet paper – become as threatening to both of them as are the thugs who are steadily closing in, it becomes entirely unclear who is guarding whom, and from what.