Manuel Bittorf (Betterov) "Goldener Retriever" x Harbour Front Literaturfestival Hamburg

Max comes to in the middle of the street. Blue lights are flashing all around him. What the hell happened? He’d only just arrived here with his best friend Chau—starting their new life. After one last wild party out in the countryside, they hopped on the ICE—leaving the East behind, heading straight for West Berlin. In the upscale Grunewald neighborhood, they live in the only prefab apartment building for miles around, completely lost among opulent mansions and Ferraris. And then there’s Kiki, Max’s first great love, who now lives in Munich. A chance encounter one night gives Max and Chau a business idea that quickly pushes their newly started studies into the background. Their plan works—until it becomes a national sensation.

First the stage, now the novel:Manuel Bittorf, born in 1994 near Eisenach, became known as a musician under the name Betterov and is now one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary German-language music. With the albums “Olympia” and “Große Kunst,” he explored the themes of provincial life, new beginnings, and the longings of a generation caught between overwhelming demands and hope. Now, with “Goldener Retriever,” he makes his debut as a novelist.

The novel begins with a loss of control and follows two young men who set out from the East German countryside for Berlin, full of expectations, exuberance, and the hope for a different life. What at first sounds like a classic coming-of-age story develops into a novel that is as funny as it is melancholic, exploring friendship, self-assertion, and the feeling of arriving in a city that always seems bigger, harsher, and more indifferent than one’s own plans.

“Touching, at times hilarious, and interwoven with the kind of melancholy that takes shape behind a rainy train window. The author knows a thing or two about that. In fact, quite a few.” (Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre)

“Bittorf tells stories as naturally as others breathe. Effortlessly and vitally.” (Ronja von Rönne)

“Manuel Bittorf hammers this wistful coming-of-age story onto the pages with a passion for writing that I’ve rarely encountered. A real whopper of a novel. I laughed my head off.” (Takis Würger)

At the Harbour Front Literature Festival, Manuel Bittorf—aka Betterov—presents “Goldener Retriever” as a reading, conversation, and musical encounter—an evening with an artist who has long since found an unmistakable voice as a musician and is now carrying it forward in literature for the first time.