Set in the 1960s, it follows the author's alter ego Harry Gelb as he lives as a heroin addict in Istanbul, as an alcoholic, menial worker and struggling writer in a Berlin commune, and as a squatter in Frankfurt.
Gelb rejects everything he regards as insipid, hierarchical and doctrinaire, whether it is mainstream culture or left-wing revolutionary groups.
[1] Fauser and Raw Material developed a cult following in Germany.
The book has been compared to American beat literature and the works of Charles Bukowski.
It was published in Jamie Bulloch's English translation in 2014.