Rocko Schamoni, GREAT FREEDOM

hanserblau - Novel - Hardcover - February 2019 - 288 pages

The world of the post-war years is narrow and stuffy. In 1962 Wolli Köhler moves to Hamburg. The young man from nowhere searches for adventure and freedom. And climbs up to become the most extraordinary Kiez-legend in the history of St. Pauli. Night after night, whores, clients, transvestites, bullies and artist, like the still completely unknown band The Beatles, stimulated by drugs and alcohol, roam the rundown streets of the Hamburg quarter. They are all driven by a longing for a limitless life.

Rocko Schamoni tells the early years of Wolfgang “Wolli” Köhler as an coming-of-age novel of an antihero.

• “A questionable and often contradictory character is this Wolli Köhler - and that is exactly what makes “Great Freedom” a special book.” - ARD Morgenmagazin

• “Schamoni portrays Wolli as a great free spirit who roams between the worlds: whores, hustlers, criminals here - artists, intellectuals, political radicals there.” DER SPIEGEL

• “Rocko Schamoni sets Wolli Köhler a literary monument in his very own way in this splendid novel.” - Bayern 2 KulturWelt

• ““Great Freedom” is a wonderful study of a man and his neighborhood.” - NDR Fernsehen Hamburg Journal

• “Rocko Schamoni sets a monument to the Reeperbahn in St. Pauli with his new novel. (…) His book is an exciting approach to a lost era.” - profil

• “Rocko Schamoni is a true universal genius who transcends all art forms.. it tells the story of the deceased neighborhood magnate Wolli Köhler (…) This is contemporary history, brilliantly told, it is captivating and entertaining.” - Brigitte

• English sample translation available

• 6 weeks on the SPIEGEL Best Seller list