Book tips in May

Kirsten Fuchs: Heal, heal

Rebekka, employed in a travel agency, is neither particularly pretty nor particularly successful. Her mind, she believes, is "exceptionally stupid for early thirties." Rebekka runs after her ex-boyfriend, the pretty Adrian, undignified and loses himself in the gray area between relationship and affair. Girlfriend Johanna is much tougher than Rebekka, but also finds no way out of the relationship with the married Lars. Both join a self-help group for women who are dependent on men. But not only from Adrian Rebekka must say goodbye. Also from her friend Jette, who has cancer ...

The 31-year-old author Kirsten Fuchs has nothing left for twisted stories and verbal locks. "Heal, heal" is written in solid colloquial language. An example: "Rebekah would have made a perfect monument: the most superfluous fat girl ever standing in the hallway." This removes Fuchs, who trained as a carpenter, although of great literature, but stands out beneficially from the patchy language mix of authors of the same age. "Heal, heal" is an entertaining, sometimes very funny story that is original because it tells the story of a normal girl's life.

You like this book ... ... if you like unspectacular stories that are not about the big, philosophical issues of humanity, but about everyday and relationship issues. And if you have enough of all the "alpha girls" and "super women" in the media.

Kirsten Fuchs: Heal, heal. Hardcover: 420 pages Rowohlt-Verlag 19.90 Euro ISBN: 978 3 87134 603 3

Jan Böttcher: Afterglow

Granted, the story sounds unspectacular at first: The two men Jo and Jens return to their home village Stolpau, which was 40 years in the GDR. Jens takes over the parental tavern, the "dike jug", Jo takes care of his frail father. Both are introverted loners - as harsh as the Elbe landscape. Not much is spoken, the villagers are taciturn. Nevertheless, a subliminal, always throbbing tension runs through the pages of the book. Jo and Jens solve their return home in their own childhood and awaken the common youth secret. 17 years ago, Jo let his friend down on a hot summer night ...

"Afterglow" is a novel that deals calmly and nostalgically with East German history, but reminiscent of the cool tone of a Swedish thriller. Without drastic, almost torturously slow, but inexorably he moves to the climax - the encounter between Jo and Jens - and delights the reader on the way there with convincingly designed characters.

You like this book ... ... if you like novels that are built like a thriller, but do not draw their tension from bloodthirsty scenes, but from finely drawn human conflicts.

Jan Böttcher: Afterglow. Hardcover: 238 pages Rowohlt Berlin 19.90 Euro ISBN: 978 3 87134 609 5

Rebecca Maria Salentin: background knowledge of a piano tuner

A young author from Leipzig makes her debut. According to the laws of the writing guild, she would have to study at the German Literature Institute. And her book would have to be a short story band that revolves around young people unable to relate. Rebecca Maria Salentin does not like both. She has been a graduate of catering companies and her work "Background Knowledge of a Piano Pianist" is a novel that evokes Krakow 100 years ago. At the center is a Polish family, which is not held together even by the strict Catholic conventions. The capricious Elzbieta with the beautiful red hair is suddenly left by her husband Karol shortly before the birth of her second child and then falls into lethargy. One does not understand the reason. But even after 20 years, he still has the destructive power to overthrow Elzbieta's daughters Katarzyna and Elisa. It is a bit precocious when Salentin Karol says: "There was no truth, there were only perceptions." But one wonders how virtuoso the 29-year-old author writes and how skilfully she composes the chapters without the reader losing track and feeling left behind. Before his eyes, rather, a bewitched fairytale world with rich scents of apples, sweet cakes and coffee. Thankfully, that does not detract from the credibility of the dissolution.

You like this book .... ... if you like luscious novels that play in a lost time.

Rebecca Maria Salentin: background knowledge of a piano tuner. Hardcover: 237 pages Schöffling & Co. 18.90 Euro ISBN: 978-3-89561-364-7

Nathaniel Hawthorne: The scarlet letter

What a dramatic story! An English colony in America, 17th century: The beautiful Hester, whose husband is missing, gets an illegitimate baby. She does not reveal the name of the child's father. But the reader knows who he is: Arthur Dimmesdale, the pastor of the puritanical, faithful church. Hester is now an outcast. As a sign of her sin, she has to attach the flaming red letter "A" to her dress. This burden changes her nature, but she does not break it. Hester and Arthur even take the monstrous idea of ​​fleeing. But Hester's returned, vengeful husband gets in their way.

The novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a passionate, linguistically impressive plea for love. Particularly poignant is the scene in which Arthur and Hester meet in the forest and defend their love for themselves and the world: "Never, never!", She whispered. "What we did had its own consecration, we felt it that way, we said it to each other, did you forget it?" "Silent, Hester!" Said Arthur Dimmesdale, rising from the floor. "No, I did not forget it!" Forbidden love - but already 300 years ago.

You like this book ... ... if you like tragic-sad love stories and do not shrink from books whose literary threshold is slightly higher.

Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter 300 pages pages Reclam 6.80 Euro ISBN: 3-15-009454-2

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