Young Gerber

Friedrich Torberg's Young Gerber (Der Schuler Gerber) is an almost unbearably moving classic novel, which tells of a schoolboy driven to madness, and ultimately tragedy, by his bullying form teacher. Kurt Gerber is an 18-year-old Austrian boy starting is last year at school, and preparing for the final exam which will determine his entire future career. However, his initial enthusiasm quickly turns into despair as he allows himself to be drawn into a war of wills and personalities with his sadistic, almost psychopathic, form teacher 'Lord God' Kupfer. Soon the formerly ordered classroom turns into their battlefield, and as Kurt's once-promising future begins to dissolve before his eyes, it seems that there is ultimately only one way out for him. Written in 1930 and prompted by a recent wave of schoolboy suicides, Friedrich Torberg's Young Gerber is a classic of Austrian literature. This is a deeply-felt, unforgettable novel about teenage conflict and classroom angst, taking in the timeless subjects of pupil-teacher confrontation, the pain of unrequited love, the struggle with parental love and authority, psychological disintegration and suicide. More than a schoolboy novel, Torberg's Young Gerber stands as an allegory of life itself. Translated from the German by Anthea Bell, Young Gerber is published by Pushkin Press.