Mats and Milad

About young love and old hate

Mathilda’s first meeting with Milad is rather shocking: She has to tear him off the rails at the last moment before a train arrives! But it turns out, that he did not want to kill himself, he just wanted to get a kick and feel he is alive.
Mats, as Mathilda calls herself, and Milad like each other almost from the first moment they’ve met. She, the outsider in her school, he who works in the garage of his dad, who originally is from Lebanon. They could be a pair. Could – if it weren’t for the beautiful Alex, who didn’t miss the fact that Milad looks pretty good on the one hand. And – on the other hand – for David, who has fallen in love with Mats, but also hangs out with the Nazi gang of the town.

This gang really becomes active when it turns out that the asylum seekers’ home in the neighbouring city is asbestos contaminated and the refugees have to be relocated to the sport hall of their village. More and more the citizens become concerned because of the “hordes of foreigners” who might come to town.

And when the sport hall goes up in flames, everything gets out of control …

Mats and Milad is a strong young adult novel with fast and funny dialogues. And it deals with the important topic of xenophobia in a so far well-functioning town in Germany…

From the press:

It‘s a novel about growing up and first love, about belonging – and about right-wing populism. […] In her debut novel […] Eva Rottmann tells a story about growing up in a sympathetic way. Elisa Katt, Fränkische Nachrichten

Shortlisted for the renowned Paul Maar Prize 2021, from the German Academy for Children‘s and Young People‘s Literature.

From the jury:

Rottmann cleverly combines the friendship of the young people with contemporary political developments, deals with exclusion and right-wing radicalism and takes a look at life in the provinces. Gripping dialogues, convincing characters and of linguistic quality!