The author of this devastating book, a Swiss-German from Zurich, died from cancer at the age of 32. His answer to the terrible question 'Why me?' is simple and harrowing: 'My parents' neuroses were responsible for producing my neurosis: my neurosis was responsible for producing my lifelong despair; my despair is responsible for my being ill with cancer; and my cancer will be the cause of my death.' This insight came too late for Zorn; his book remains to speak to us in the authentic voice of contemporary alienation. It is an uncomfortable experience, but an important and moving one in the tradition of Sartre's La Nausee and Camus' L'Etranger.