Where Love Begins
2018 Longlist

Where Love Begins

Translated from the German by Margot Bettauer Dembo
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ABOUT
THE BOOK

Stella is married, she has a child and a fulfilling job. She lives with her young family in a house in the suburbs.

Her life is happy and unremarkable, but she is a little lonely-her husband travels a lot for work and so she is often alone in the house with only her daughter for company. One day a stranger appears at her door, a man Stella’s never seen before. He says he just wants to talk to her, nothing more. She refuses. The next day he comes again. And then the day after that. He will not leave her in peace. When Stella works out that he lives up the road, and tries to confront him, it makes no difference. This is the beginning of a nightmare that slowly and remorselessly escalates.

Where Love Begins is a delicately wrought, deeply sinister novel about how easily the comfortable lives we construct for ourselves can be shattered.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Judith
Hermann

Judith Hermann was born in Berlin in 1970. She is the author of Alice, The Summer House, Later and Nothing but Ghosts, which have received a number of literary awards including the Kleist Prize. She lives and works in Berlin.

Judith Hermann was born in Berlin in 1970. She is the author of Alice, The Summer House, Later and Nothing but Ghosts, which have received a number of literary awards including the Kleist Prize. She lives and works in Berlin.

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Margot
Bettauer Dembo

Margot Bettauer Dembo (10 January 1928 – 10 July 2019) was a German-born American translator of fiction and non-fiction. She translated writing from German to English, and is known for her translations of works by Judith Hermann, Robert Gernhardt, Joachim Fest, Ödön von Horvath, Feridun Zaimoglu, and Hermann Kant. Her work has won her the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize and the Goethe-Institut/Berlin Translator’s Prize. She has translated multiple non-fiction memoirs and historical accounts of World War II, as well as several works of fiction.

Margot Bettauer Dembo (10 January 1928 – 10 July 2019) was a German-born American translator of fiction and non-fiction. She translated writing from German to English, and is known for her translations of works by Judith Hermann, Robert Gernhardt, Joachim Fest, Ödön von Horvath, Feridun Zaimoglu, and Hermann Kant. Her work has won her the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize and the Goethe-Institut/Berlin Translator’s Prize. She has translated multiple non-fiction memoirs and historical accounts of World War II, as well as several works of fiction.

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

Stella lives a happy life with her family in a suburban house. However, she is often alone with her daughter because her husband travels on business a lot.  One day a stranger is standing in front of her door who wants to talk to her. Nothing else. This is repeated from day to day. He does not leave her alone – the beginning of a nightmare. Masterfully composed psychological drama about stalking and how quickly a life can get out of control.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
03/03/2016
Country
Germany
Original Language
German
Publisher
The Clerkenwell Press
Translator
Margot Bettauer Dembo
Translation
Translated from the German by Margot Bettauer Dembo

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