Paul Vier und die Schröders by Andreas Steinhöfel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

From the cover of the various editions of this book and from the descriptions of it on Amazon and Goodreads, I was expecting a light, humorous young teen story - the kind where these comical people move into a neighborhood, causing all sort of problems, but eventually everything is worked out and everyone becomes friends. This is exactly NOT what actually happens. The story is much more serious than I expected and has much more depth.

I listened to this story in German and, although my German isn't perfect, I think I understood most of it. I may have missed some of the more humorous turns of phrases, but the book isn't actually funny. The themes - prejudice, acceptance of violence toward those we don't like/understand, and hypocrisy - are both universal and specific.

Very worthwhile. I may actually listen to it again, so that I get a bit more of the language nuances.
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