Klaus Bärenfänger reads faces. In foreheads, noses, jaws, and skulls, he sees what others are allegedly: their talents, their weaknesses, and their place in the world. His ideas rest on physiognomy, a long-discredited pseudoscience. In Germany he advises companies, writes books, teaches seminars, and sorts boards and departments by facial shapes. Now he aims to conquer the American market.
In 2009, Bärenfänger moves with his children Chloé and Louis to California. While the father pursues his idiosyncratic American Dream along the Pacific, the siblings fall under the spell of an ideology that wants to measure not only corporations but also life at home.
Growing Up Under His Father’s Gaze
Louis is 15 years old, shy, delicate, and gay. He is searching for words to describe himself. His two years older sister Chloé is tougher and more vigilant. She begins to challenge their father. Yet the more his worldview crumbles, the more dangerous his need to be right becomes.
The father’s supposed insight into people becomes a tool for control within the family. His attributions clash with his children’s need to figure out who they are for themselves. For Louis, this conflict gains particular significance because of his sexuality: his search for his own voice meets a father who believes he can read people by their appearance. Thus Skull intertwines the siblings’ coming of age with the question of how self-determination can exist under such conditions.
“Skull” tells a double coming‑of‑age story that moves between Malibu, New York, and Bielefeld. The con artist novel tackles the power of labeling while also painting a portrait of a moment just beginning to tilt: Obama’s America, Occupy, social media, and the rise of the New Right. It is now published by März Verlag in Berlin as a 276-page hardcover for €25, as well as an e-book for €19.99 (Amazon-Affiliate-Link). A PDF excerpt is available for download here.
On Thursday, October 22, 2026, Finn Job will present his novel “Skull” for the first time at 8:00 p.m. at the Berliner Literaturforum in Chausseestraße 125. Martin Schüler will host the reading and the discussion. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is six euros, reduced to four euros. The book premiere will also be streamed live.
Finn Job was born in 1995 in Hanover and has lived in Berlin since 2014. He studied German literature, philosophy, comparative literature, and art history, worked as a bartender, and published essays and short stories in newspapers and magazines. His novels “Hinterher” (2022) and “Damenschach” (2024) attracted widespread press attention. For his literary work, he was awarded the Alfred Döblin Medal. (dd/pm)
Finn Job: Skull. 276 pages. März Verlag. Berlin 2026. Hardcover with dust jacket: €25 (ISBN: 978-3-7550-0071-6). E-Book: €19.99
