Translated by Melanie Richter-Bernburg A satirical novel that follows the thoughts and adventures of Harry von Duckwitz, an aristocratic left-leaning lawyer who suddenly gives up his job and enters the foreign service which posts him to Ecuador. Full of direct and outrageous opinions about almost everything under the sun, Duckwitz is also thoughtful and self-critical, stumbling on may truths in his attempt to take on a wide variety of the species homo sapiens.