Next Door Lived a Girl

Fiction. Winner of the Low Fidelity press inaugural Novella Award, NEXT DOOR LIVED A GIRL is set in Wedersen, a working-class town in post-World War II Germany. It explores the dark transformation of young boys into young men. The town's veneer of peaceful industry barely conceals the ugly secrets that lie beneath. Moritz and his friends make a dangerous discovery that pulls them into a war with a rival gang, into the ruthless and cunning world of blackmail and consequence, and, ultimately, into a cascading series of events that will change the nature of their friendship, and their lives, forever. Written with an uncommon starkness and poetry, NEXT DOOR LIVED A GIRL is destined to find its place in the canon of great novellas alongside the likes of Harrison, Hemingway, and Roth.