Migratory restlessness is the restlessness of birds in the run-up to their migration, the nocturnal longing, the feeling of hardly being able to resist the call of the distance – which, conversely, means that nothing holds in this place, which is becoming increasingly inhospitable. And the world appears inhospitable, almost lost to the protagonist in Levin Westermann's debut novel – and what people have made of it in their rush for progress. Flanked by disaster reports, reports of pandemics and the climate crisis, dreams of space colonization, he wanders through the landscapes of Switzerland and Germany, past rocket stations and suspicious glances, and records the unbridled destructive rage of humans, a species out of control, who have forgotten that they are not alone on this planet, that they are surrounded by life, and who, despite all warnings, will not stop fanning the flames of this storm. The unrest thus ultimately proves to be an expression of the history of the decay of nature and culture, which Westermann knows how to capture at the tipping point, as a rebellion in the face of impending doom.
Awards
German Prize for Nature Writing 2022Novel
Sample translation
English sample available
Levin Westermann, born in Meerbusch in 1980, studied at the Bern University of the Arts and lives as a freelance writer in Biel. In 2020 he was awarded the prestigious Clemens Brentano Prize of the city of Heidelberg. For his poetry collection bezüglich der schatten he received the Swiss Literature Prize 2021.
By the same author(s)
“Levin Westermann's Migratory Restlessness is a compelling, a necessary book. It is an invitation to productive, potentially open-ended reading, because sentence by sentence, connections open up that can be pursued.” – Petra Nagenkögel, Ö1 Ex libris
