Review of Friendship and social relationships in extraordinary times : an analysis of Heinz Helle’s Eigentlich müssten wir tanzen

Heinz Helle’s Eigentlich müssten wir tanzen (2015) tells the story of five friends and their struggle to survive when the world as they know it falls apart. Set in the immediate future in southern Germany, the novel outlines an end of days scenario. An unknown disaster has taken place and civilisation has been destroyed. Fürst, Golde, Gruber, Drygalski and the unnamed narrator have survived as they spent the weekend together in an isolated hut in the mountains. This attempt to temporarily escape their lives by spending a weekend renewing their friendship overshoots the mark somewhat as, when they descend, they are faced with a panorama of utter destruction. Resources have been pillaged, waterways polluted; piles of putrefying and scorched corpses dot the landscape. Although the root cause of the disaster remains unclear, it becomes increasingly apparent that marauders are on the rampage