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2024 Longlist

The Fire

Translated from the original German by Jamie Bulloch
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ABOUT
THE BOOK

With plans adrift after a fire burns down their rented holiday cabin, Rahel and Peter find themselves unexpectedly on an isolated farm where Rahel spent many a happy childhood summer. Suddenly, after years of navigating careers, demanding children and the monotony of the daily routine, they find themselves unable to escape each other’s company. With three weeks stretching ahead, they must come to an understanding on whether they have a future together. What happens when love grows older and passion has faded? When what divides us is greater than what brought us together? And how easy is it to ask the fundamental questions about our relationships?

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Daniela
Krien

Daniela Krien was born in 1975 in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, then in the G.D.R. Her first novel, Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything, was published in English in 2013 (MacLehose Press) and in fourteen other languages. For a subsequent volume of short stories, Muldental, she was awarded the Nicolaus Born Prize. Love in Five Acts has been sold for translation into twenty languages. She lives in Leipzig with her two daughters.

Daniela Krien was born in 1975 in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, then in the G.D.R. Her first novel, Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything, was published in English in 2013 (MacLehose Press) and in fourteen other languages. For a subsequent volume of short stories, Muldental, she was awarded the Nicolaus Born Prize. Love in Five Acts has been sold for translation into twenty languages. She lives in Leipzig with her two daughters.

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Jamie
Bulloch

Jamie Bulloch is the translator of novels by Timur Vermes, Birgit Vanderbeke, Arno Geiger, Steven Uhly, Robert Menasse and Roland Schimmelpfennig, and of crime novels by Romy Hausmann, Sebastian Fitzek and Oliver Bottini. For his translation of Birgit Vanderbeke’s The Mussel Feast he was the winner of the Schlegel-Tieck Prize.

Jamie Bulloch is the translator of novels by Timur Vermes, Birgit Vanderbeke, Arno Geiger, Steven Uhly, Robert Menasse and Roland Schimmelpfennig, and of crime novels by Romy Hausmann, Sebastian Fitzek and Oliver Bottini. For his translation of Birgit Vanderbeke’s The Mussel Feast he was the winner of the Schlegel-Tieck Prize.

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

Ostensibly the portrait of a marriage, the novel is also an expedition into our society with its current discussions on topics such as gender identity, feminism, fall of the Wall an reunification. Although the text is written from Rahel’s perspective, Peter’s feelings and problems as an “old white man” are also visible. The depiction of his alienation from a world that is changing too rapidly is a central motif. Daniela Krien language is clear and without frills. She writes never banal, but always artfully literary, what makes the novel wonderfully readable.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
08/06/2023
Country
Germany
Original Language
German
Author
Publisher
MacLehose Press, Quercus
Translator
Jamie Bulloch
Translation
Translated from the original German by Jamie Bulloch
Borrow this book from Libraries Ireland

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