Synopsis
"Guarding Hanna" is a brilliant absurdist black comedy that relentlessly pokes and prods at the human condition while never losing sight of the humanity of its characters. The hero of this anti-drama drama is the novel's unnamed narrator who views himself as the epitome of ugliness. Abandoned at birth because of his deformities, the only family he has ever known has been that of a local Berlin gang. The patriarch of the gang, Maestro, has taken on the father role for our hero, while employing him to collect debts and otherwise perform general thuggish tasks for the gang.Except for the brief moments when he interacts with the gang or its debtors, our hero spends his life alone, walking Berlin's streets and sleeping in one of the city's vast housing projects. This will all change in a flash when one of Maestro's sons is implicated in a crime that could put him away for good. Maestro's only hope in saving his son lies in the testimony of the beautiful but eccentric Hanna Woyczik, the sole witness to the crime.Maestro calls on his 'beast' to move in with and protect Hanna until the trial.
But having never spent more than five minutes in a social situation with any human being - never mind a woman - he quickly finds the basic tasks of human interaction and social intercourse - such as conversing, eating, and shopping for toilet paper and aspirin - insufferable, and within hours of entering Hanna's life, the question becomes, 'Who is protecting whom? And as the week progresses and the threats to Hanna's life mount, the more vital questions become, 'And from whom? Or what?'
