Jürgen Grasshoff

Usedom-marathon: an Odyssey of Care and Love Jürgen Grasshoff

The story starts just before the USEDOM-MARATHON, an international running event on this shallow island in Northeastern Germany near Poland. Spa physician Aloys happens to be a transvestite who frequently pays a public ladies' room a visit. Also the inventor of a diagnostic sonar analyzer, he realizes that the athlete in the stall next door has a fatal heart condition. His attempts to warn Mwama, a striking marathon-ace from the East African island of Zanzibar, fail. An intervention during the race spells disaster by leading to the runner's disqualification and the physician's downfall. Shattered, he secretly takes off for Zanzibar to find the young runner and try to save her life. His decision changes his life forever. Their falling in love, his conversion to his own extraterrestrial version of Islam, his son's following his foot steps, and the events of the 2002 Usedom-Marathon are milestones a reader hardly wants to miss.