The Death of Dr. K

A Love Story

Dr. K is a pensioned-off insurance lawyer who occasionally publishes fiction. One day when he’s walking in a Berlin park with his young girlfriend Dora he comes upon a little girl who’s lost her doll. Dr. K calms her tears by explaining that Josefine isn’t lost; she’s merely gone off on an adventure. Serving as the doll’s ghost writer, K entertains the child with a series of letters relating Josefine’s life as she makes her way through a friendly but unexpectedly baffling world.

The doll’s fantastic adventures mirror the strange chronicle of Dr. K’s life—an existence he himself finds miraculous and incomprehensible. Most miraculous of all is the story of his May-December love affair with Dora, which he reimagines in a set of recollections and fantasies while he drifts in and out of consciousness in an Austrian sanatorium.

As he succumbs to an agonizing disease, the dying writer finds unexpected moments of happiness thanks to his dreams and memories, but most of all though the love of a vibrant and resolute young woman.