Hans-Ulrich Treichel, "one of the greatest talents of contemporary literature" (Die Zeit), is a poet, essayist and professor of German Literature at the University of Leipzig. He has enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame since the publication of his first novel, Der Verlorene in 1998. Translated into English as Lost, it has been described as "an extraordinary portrait of broken love, of the ways that loss undoes a family; the way the ghosts of the past can haunt a present". Treichel?s second novel, equally well received, was Tristanakkord (The Tristan Chord), published in 2000. Both widely acclaimed novels were bestsellers in Germany and have been translated into twenty-one languages. This monograph will be of interest to both scholars and students of contemporary German literature. It is the first academic assessment (in English or in German) of Treichel's work, which ranges from novels to poetry and academic writing. It begins with a previously unpublished essay by Treichel, a biographical essay and an interview. Subsequent essays include an overview of his career and readings of individual works, as well as discussing Treichel?s aesthetics and the relationship of his academic and literary writings. The volume concludes with a full bibliography.