Fiction. Crime. German Studies. Charles Baxter praises this "laconic and feverish" debut novella by Stefan Kiesbye. Drawing the reader into the beautifully rendered lives of German adolescents during an era of war and hostility, the events of NEXT DOOR LIVED A GIRL unfold like a true-crime novel. According to Robert Olmstead, Kiesbye paints a "spontaneous and shockingly violent" depiction of the human condition in an "insightful and darkly humerous way" that is not only believable, but also "compelling and unsettling".