Röhner

Previously published in German by Ropol Press, Röhner is a delightfully detailed field guide to the every day tasks of living in an apartment - making coffee, watering plants, and maintaining order and a careful balance with neighbors - until that order is upset. Max Baitinger's dry humor and precise drawings deftly personify his über persnickety protagonist, simply referred to as P., whose regimented life is disrupted by the arrival of Röhner, an unloved houseguest, who imposes upon his psyche and offsets the careful balance with his gregarious, omnipresent neighbor. Devious tricks and hilarious imaginations of Röhner's elimination take shape, from painstakingly making up Röhner's guestroom and then piercing the air mattress to cause a slow leak - to visions of an exploding coffee pot tearing off Röhner's face. Baitinger has three books published in German and Röhner is his first English language publication.