For this year, I wished myself to read more German books and be more friendly to audio-books. What about having 2 for 1?
Die Fotografin by Petra Durst-Benning is a perfect companion when you are looking for a good story in German language. Read by the actress Svenja Pages, it is the story of the photographer Mimi Reventlow on her way to become successful in Berlin and back in her home in the South, to set up a prosperous tipography business.
The action takes place at the beginning of the last century, before the WWI, and it features women that are about to take control of their lives and successfully manage their local businesses, independent and not necessarily and desperately looking to marry. The novel presents life in Germany under the impact of industrialisation and the ways in which this process affected the everyday life.
Mimi is one of the best portrayed characters and together with the other strong women introduced in the book, balances the men characters which are unreliable, prone to sudden changes of mind and sentimentally unstable.
Interestingly, it also offers insights about photography, as a new crfeative way replacing the classical painting and other old style visual arts and representations. The facts and observations are put into the right historical perspective which makes the book authentic and the story a good choice for a relaxing afternoon.
This is only one of the book in a series of three, but when I will have more time and my TBR list will diminish, I will be curious to follow the further adventures of Mimi Reventlow and the other strong women from the South of Germany (mostly), where the author is originally from.
Rating: 3 stars
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