The Kangaroo Chronicles is a book series by the German author, singer-songwriter and Kabarett artist Marc-Uwe Kling, detailing his fictional adventures at the side of his irreverent flatmate, a Communist kangaroo. Structured as anthologies of loosely connected, humorous short stories, and featuring a large cast of recurring characters, the material draws equally on anti-capitalist social critiques and relatable absurdities of everyday life in contemporary Berlin.
The series was a great commercial success in Germany, particularly the audiobooks, read and performed by the author, with the first volume also having been translated into English, French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and Korean. The first book in the series, Die Känguru-Chroniken (en: The Kangaroo Chronicles), was published in 2009, followed by Das Känguru-Manifest (en: The Kangaroo Manifesto, 2011); Die Känguru-Offenbarung (en: The Kangaroo Revelations, 2014); and Die Känguru-Apokryphen (en: The Kangaroo Apocrypha, 2018).
The Kangaroo has also appeared in other media. Before the publication of the first volume, the initial stories were broadcast as a weekly radio podcast Neues vom Känguru (en: News from the Kangaroo), on Fritz, a Berlin-based radio station, starting in 2008. The show was awarded the for "Best Comedy" in 2010. Episodes started being made available on a dedicated YouTube channel in early 2020, under the title "Neues vom Känguru reloaded". A film adaptation by ZDF and X Filme was released in 2020, followed by a sequel in 2022.
Plot
Die Känguru Chroniken (The Kangaroo Chronicles)
The story opens as first-person narrator Marc-Uwe—a self-reflective, ironically disposed, twenty-something bohemian and former philosophy student who earns a living as a Kabarett artist—answers his door to a talking kangaroo. It introduces itself as his new neighbour and asks to borrow some eggs to make pancakes, having forgotten to buy any. No sooner has the flabbergasted narrator handed it some eggs and closed the door that the Kangaroo rings again, now asking to also borrow, salt, milk, flour, oil, and a pan. It also transpires that it does not yet have a stove, so Marc-Uwe invites the animal into his kitchen to make pancakes. Shortly thereafter the brash Kangaroo moves in with him entirely, without asking permission, and the two become flatmates. It refuses to pay rent or pursue stable employment, brusquely declaring "I'm a Communist. Got something against that?", so the narrator becomes responsible for the Kangaroo's livelihood.
Thus begins the story of a deep friendship, characterised by much bickering over topics ranging from media and linguistic criticism, to capitalism, questions of life and faith, contemporary protest culture, Karl Marx, Bertolt Brecht, the Red Army Faction and the Viet Cong. The character's adventures are related through a series of interconnected, but self-contained, short stories which are mostly set in Berlin and occasionally make mention of concrete geographical locations, such as Berlin-Kreuzberg or the underground station Kottbusser Tor. Towards the end of the book, Marc-Uwe and the Kangaroo encounter their new neighbour, a Penguin. He introduces himself as a salesman for frozen food but the two protagonists are immediately suspicious, which sets the Penguin up as a Capitalist antagonist to the Kangaroo for subsequent books.
Das Känguru Manifest (The Kangaroo Manifesto)
The book picks up where the first volume left off. The reader learns of the fictional Ministerium für Produktivität (en: Ministry for Productivity), which has plans to crack down on unemployment by introducing the Initiative für mehr Arbeit (en: Initiative for More Labour). Meanwhile, a personal rivalry develops between the Kangaroo and the Penguin next door. For example, the Kangaroo, an avid boxer, contrives to install its punching bag so it keeps bumping into their shared wall when in use. In return, the Penguin places several alarm clocks against the wall, in order to wake the Kangaroo at what it considers ungodly hours. Marc-Uwe's editor suggests to the Kangaroo that the Penguin is its archenemy, fighting to advance a kapitalistischer Weltverschlechterungsplan (en: capitalist Plot to Screw Up the World).
At a writers' awards ceremony—which the protagonists attend as nominees in the category "Best Book Featuring a Talking Animal"—Marc-Uwe and the Kangaroo meet Jörg and Jörn Dwigs: twin brothers and founders of the right-wing populist party Sicherheit und Verantwortung (SV; en: Safety and Responsibility). Their encounter inspires the Kangaroo to found the Asoziales Netzwerk (en: The Antisocial Network) – an underground resistance group that commits "anti-terror attacks" aimed at "The System." The SV goes on to be elected to parliament the following elections and the Ministry for Productivity begins implementing a policy categorising immigrants into productive and unproductive. This is despite the Antisocial Network's fervent efforts at sabotage, which go so far as breaking into the Ministry's server rooms to physically destroy the immigrant database. At the close of the book, the Kangaroo—convinced the Penguin is secretly pulling the strings behind the whole campaign—is categorised as unproductive and deported.
Where The Chronicles revolved mainly around realist depictions of everyday life in Berlin—with the exception of the talking Kangaroo—, in The Manifesto, Kling first begins to develop an overarching plot line, and introduces a number of quasi-realistic organisations and institutions, as well as recurring characters—notably Marc-Uwe's love interest Maria (codenamed Gott (en: God)) and other members of the Antisocial Network. However each short story (chapter) remains intelligible on its own.
Die Känguru-Offenbarung (The Kangaroo Revelations) The third volume is divided into two parts – Revelations I and II.
At the beginning of Revelations I, Marc-Uwe has been alone for several months already and is suffering from depression. However, the Kangaroo soon returns. Since it is now an illegal immigrant, it relies on a series of disguises to avoid deportation. The two quickly determine that the Penguin no longer lives in his flat, so they make it their mission to find him. They do not follow a set plan or strategy, preferring simply to look in many different places—but wherever they end up, they seem to have just missed the penguin. At the end of part 1, Marc-Uwe's editor asks for more grandeur, so in Revelations II, the flatmates carry on their search abroad.
Marc-Uwe and the Kangaroo visit New York City, Toronto, Brussels, Seattle and Caracas, then Toronto again, and finally Ho-Chi-Minh City. It turns out that the Anti-Social Network has branched out into regional groups all over the world, and they encounter other members in New York and Toronto. In Ho-Chi-Minh City, Marc-Uwe and the Kangaroo find a factory that is run by the Penguin. To find out what is being manufactured there, they follow the supply chain, eventually reaching an island in the Aegean Sea. The Kangaroo develops the theory that the Penguin and his associates want to turn the whole world into an airport. Marc-Uwe and the Kangaroo find the penguins' headquarters, where it turns out they're raising small penguins. Marc-Uwe and the Kangaroo barely escape the penguins' factory, only making it out with the help of a turncoat penguin. Finally, they make their way to the Outback, where they meet an independent group of kangaroos who are also fighting against "The System" and the penguins.
The Revelations also include an appendix which describes various anti-terror attacks against the Kangaroo's various foes. The final part of this appendix describes the kangaroos' sabotage of the penguins' first airport.
Revelations I is similar to the Manifesto in that its stories remain comprehensible in isolation; the stories in the second part, on the other hand, build upon one another. As the book progresses, its chapters become less and less individually comprehensible. The Revelations incorporate many elements characteristic of Fantasy novels. It also contains various running gags new to the series. For example, every time the protagonists meet someone abroad, it's emphasised again and again what a crazy coincidence it is that the new character just happens to speak German.
Die Känguru-Apokryphen (The Kangaroo Apocrypha) The fourth volume was published in October 2018. It is made up of 30 different stories, by and large not organised in chronological order. Nevertheless, some series of interdependent stories, for example those featuring Dietmar Kötke, are told chronologically. Some of the stories are set during the time period of the Chronicles, but others occur even after the end of the Revelations. The Apocrypha also include some stories from earlier volumes, retold from the perspective of the Kangaroo.
Characters and organisations
Protagonists
Narrator The protagonist of the Chronicles is the first-person narrator, Marc-Uwe. He is characterized as an educated, critical, self-reflecting intellectual in his late twenties. Marc-Uwe is a member of the 'Kleinkunstszene' of Berlin (genre of arts including poetry slam, kabarett, and comedy amongst other things). He was born in Baden-Württemberg and now lives in a flat in Berlin. Money is usually tight, this does not change when the Kangaroo moves in, as it does not make any money and has Marc-Uwe pay for everything. Marc-Uwe likes to read his poems to the Kangaroo and tell it about his thoughts, plans and ideas, which the Kangaroo likes to criticize ruthlessly. It is not often that the two are on a par in their debates and discussions, however, the Kangaroo tends to win most discussions as it uses unfair and malicious techniques when debating.
The Kangaroo The Kangaroo fought in the Vietnam War on the side of the Viet Cong, according to its statement, and came to the GDR as Vertragsarbeiter (contract worker) with his mother after the war had ended. However, later, it is discovered that it only waved at the last American helicopter as a little baby out of its mother's pouch. It tells the narrator that it's a full-time communist, but files for unemployment later in the text. It is a relentless critic of capitalism and fights for a just world order, bread for all and the ban of the so-called music television (television where music, music videos and information related to music is aired), which is why it founded the "Judeo-Bolshevist world conspiracy association" (original: "Jüdisch-Bolschewistische Weltverschwörung e.V."). But all of these attempts fail naturally because of the insignificance of the Kangaroo in the world's affairs and because of its laziness. Thereby, its critical of capitalism attitude is often counteracted because it's kept by the narrator. In addition to that, it uses the narrator as object for its unfair trade practices (such as forced ringtone subscriptions).
The kangaroo loves booze pralines, schnitzel buns with mince, as well as the band Nirvana and movies with Bud Spencer – preferably without Terence Hill. It is literate, argues radical and consequent, while simultaneously behaving childish, defiant and goatish. It does steal ashtrays whenever it has the opportunity and is occasionally malicious and back-stabbing. In dicey situations though, the kangaroo selflessly assists his roommate. It always carries a ton of stuff in his pouch. Until the kangaroo locates what it precisely needs, it frequently has to search for long time and then pulls out books, bolt cutters, newspapers, stolen ashtrays and lots more. In many cases the red boxing gloves it carries in his pouch come to use, which most of the times are found unerringly. It is working on a magnum opus, which, according to the Kangaroo, carries the two human main driving forces in its title: "opportunism and repression". The Kangaroo tends to cite smaller passages out of it.