I may confess that I am relatively far behind my list of German reviews for the books included on the Deutscher Buchpreis - the German Booker - but I am doing my best to catch up as much as I can, even a few years later. Most of those books haven´t been translated into Engish so far, therefore it is never too late for edition houses and translators to consider them.
My choice of the day is a book by Leipzig-based choreographer, poet and novelist Martina Hefter. I was not acquainted with her work before reading the book, but the inspiration - love scams, quite a lot. But the topic of Hey Guten Morgen, wie geht es dir? - Hi, good morning, how are you?, in English - goes far beyond the scam - which is playing no dramatic, financially dramatic kind, of scam.
Juno Isabella Flock is a woman in her mid-50s, a freelance choreographer and dancer, married with Jupiter, a successful writer, wellchair-ridden due to MS. She is often getting in touch via Instagram with strangers keen to chat about life and love, but out of them, she chose to spend around one year intensively involved online with one Nigerian guy. Online conversations, video chat, nothing necessarily scammy, until he confesses his ´love´ to her, and she is spending a lot of time writing and talking to him about various readings. She also didn´t share the truth about herself, including that she is married.
The book, built around Juno, is growing up on multiple plans, including ageism and coping with becoming invisible - as an artist, woman etc. (that´s quite an obsession in German literature to complain about getting old and finished, which reflects the social constructions regarding women, attitudes unfathomable in French, Spanish or Italian literature).
Most of the characters do have astrophysics-inspired names, which sometimes makes sense - Juno spacecraft is orbiting Jupiter, for instance - but often don´t.
There are correspondences between the author´s own biography - based in Leipzig, some tattoos, her husband, the successful author Jan Kuhlbrodt, is also living with MS, or the profession of choreographer.
The book was awarded the 2024 Deutscher Bucherpreis out of an impressive longlist that I hope to review in the coming weeks as well. Was it the best decision?
I felt a bit disappointed by the story flow: well built and written, however, mostly introspective and without paying too much attention to really finishing the topic, any of it. It is a marvelous dance, that ends abruptly with the main dancer is suddenly leaving the stage. An unexpected exit hard to place into the line of the general story.
Rating: 3 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
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