If peas produce peas and finches produce finches, what does that portend for a young man contemplating his family tree - a bipolar grandmother, an alcoholic mother, and a depressed father? Haunted by a fear of madness, he escapes his family to New York and later trains as a psychologist in Vienna. Botanik des Wahnsinns (Botany of Madness) is a contemporary coming-of-age novel, full of compassion and wit, that confronts the central question: What does it mean to be normal? “Tender and brutal at once. Stylistically, this book is a rare gem.” (SRF 2 Kultur)