While We Were Dreaming

“We were young, we were wild, and we thought we’d live forever.”

While We Were Dreaming follows a group of friends in Leipzig during the tumultuous years before and after German reunification. The novel unfolds through fragmented, episodic chapters, blending raw realism with dreamlike intensity.

Early Years (1980s)

The story begins with the narrator, Danny, and his friends—Rico, Mark, and Paul—navigating their adolescence in the crumbling East Germany. They steal, drink, and fight, clinging to their rebellious camaraderie as their world disintegrates around them. The fall of the Berlin Wall looms, but their lives remain chaotic and directionless.

Reunification Chaos

After the Wall falls, the boys plunge into the lawlessness of the early 1990s. They exploit the blurred boundaries between East and West, dealing drugs, squatting in abandoned buildings, and chasing fleeting highs. The promise of a new Germany feels hollow as they spiral into violence and addiction.

Fractured Bonds

As adulthood approaches, the group fractures. Rico vanishes into the criminal underworld, Mark succumbs to alcoholism, and Paul drifts into isolation. Danny, now a semi-reliable narrator, pieces together their shattered dreams in retrospect, revealing how reunification failed a generation.

Final Collapse

The novel ends in a haze of nostalgia and regret. Danny visits old haunts, now gentrified or demolished, haunted by ghosts of his past. The friends’ youthful defiance has curdled into resignation, their dreams swallowed by the relentless march of history.

Key Ideas

• The disillusionment of East German youth post-reunification
• The destructive allure of rebellion and escapism
• Fragmented identity in a rapidly changing society
• Nostalgia as both comfort and prison
• The cyclical nature of violence and poverty