Wladimir Kaminer asks: "Wie sage ich es meiner Mutter"

Explaining the modern world, from gender-neutral language to organic food - New stories from the bestselling author

Wladimir Kaminer’s mother is increasingly feeling alienated from the world. Her grandchildren prefer vegan omelettes to burgers, want to close down the zoo they used to love so much (they claim the animals are being mistreated) and even pick on her environmentally friendly fly swatter. Suddenly, it’s no longer OK to take long-haul flights, and even a seemingly innocuous online recipe for cucumber salad is a Bad Thing, because it proves that a sneaky algorithm decides what you see on the web – though in the case of Kaminer’s mother, it’s more likely to show her recipes than invitations to join a climate change protest. In short, it feels like Grandma and her grandchildren are living on different planets nowadays. Kaminer can appreciate both points of view. So he does his best to explain the new world to his mother – from organic meat to gender-neutral language – and to act as a good-humoured intergenerational mediator.