Enormous thanks to Gisela Leky, Robert Leky, Jan Strathmann, and Jan Valk. And to Tilman Rammstedt, who accompanied this book from the first idea to the epilogue.

For their helpful advice, I thank Christian Dillo, René Michaelsen, Cornel Müller, Bernhard Quast, Gernot Reich, and the Röseler optical shop in Berlin.

Certain themes from this novel were first aired in the radio play Der Buddhist und ich (The Buddhist and I), WDR, 2012.

A NOTE ON THE AUTHOR

Mariana Leky was born in Cologne and currently makes her home in Berlin. After training as a bookseller, she studied cultural journalism at the University of Hildesheim. Though she is one of the very few members of her family who are not psychologists, she still writes a monthly column for the magazine Psychologie Heute. Her books have earned numerous prizes, including the Allegra Prize, the Lower Saxony Literary Advancement Award, and the Advancement Prize for Young Artists from the State of North Rhine- Westphalia. Before being published in twenty-one languages, What You Can See from Here was named the German Booksellers’ Favorite Book of the Year and became a runaway bestseller.

A NOTE ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

Tess Lewis is a writer and translator from the French and German. Her translations include works by Peter Handke, Walter Benjamin, Klaus Merz, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Christine Angot, Pascal Bruckner, and Jean-Luc Benoziglio.