Die Bagage - the suitcase - is a family reconstruction of the author´s mother. Grete was born in a village, as the daughter of Maria and Josef Moosbrugger, a poor family named ´Die Bagage´, a heavy human weight for the locality they were living. While Josef is at war (WWI), the mayor is taking care of the family. When a foreigner from Hannover comes to visit, shortly after Maria is getting pregnant with Grete. Paternity may be unsure, but Grete is part of the family.
The book is part of a wider take on literary memoirs: it uses a biographical detail which is fictionalised at a great extent within the limits of personal facts. We may not know exactly the contents of the discussions between the mayor and Maria for instance, which took place long before Grete was born. Maybe those stories were not directly shared by her grandmother. Nevertheless, those details are less relevant, they serve as a counter-point of the factual account itself.
I´ve found it an interesting exploration, playing tricks with the always unclear borders between fiction and nonfiction, between facts as they were, and facts as we do remember and facts as we imagine them.
Die Bagage is part of a memorialistic trilogy, and I will soon review the next volume Vati, about her father. The cover of this trilogy is outstanding, the difuse colours and moving plans of the painting being a proper illustration of the memory games the author herself is playing with.
I had access to the book in the audiobook format, read by the author, but I haven´t enjoyed too much her voice.
Rating: 3 stars
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