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The Blurb On The Back:
One clear ice-cold January morning shortly after dawn, a wolf crosses the border between Poland and Germany. His trail leads all the way to Berlin, connecting the lives of disparate individuals whose paths intersect and diverge.
On an icy motorway eighty kilometres outside the city, a fuel tanker jack-knifes and explodes. The lone wolf is glimpsed on the hard shoulder and photographed by Tomasz, a Polish construction worker who cannot survive in Germany without his girlfriend. Elisabeth and Micha run away through the snow from their home village, crossing the wolf’s tracks on their way to the city. A woman burns her mother’s diaries on a Berlin balcony. And Elisabeth’s father, a famous sculptor, observes the vast skeleton of a whale in his studio and asks: What am I doing here? And why?
Experiences and encounters flicker past with a raw, visual power, like frames in a black and white film. Those who catch sight of the wolf see their own lives reflected, and find themselves searching for a different path in a cold time.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Roland Schimmelpfennig’s literary novel (translated from German by Jamie Bulloch) is an icy affair reminiscent of the movie CRASH in that its disparate cast are drawn together by a random event but despite its clean, cool prose the story itself left me cold as the wide cast prevented me from feeling close with any specific character and the downbeat notes left me depressed, while I didn’t know enough about Germany to comprehend the allegory.
ONE CLEAR ICE-COLD JANUARY MORNING AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY was released in the United Kingdom on 5th April 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
One clear ice-cold January morning shortly after dawn, a wolf crosses the border between Poland and Germany. His trail leads all the way to Berlin, connecting the lives of disparate individuals whose paths intersect and diverge.
On an icy motorway eighty kilometres outside the city, a fuel tanker jack-knifes and explodes. The lone wolf is glimpsed on the hard shoulder and photographed by Tomasz, a Polish construction worker who cannot survive in Germany without his girlfriend. Elisabeth and Micha run away through the snow from their home village, crossing the wolf’s tracks on their way to the city. A woman burns her mother’s diaries on a Berlin balcony. And Elisabeth’s father, a famous sculptor, observes the vast skeleton of a whale in his studio and asks: What am I doing here? And why?
Experiences and encounters flicker past with a raw, visual power, like frames in a black and white film. Those who catch sight of the wolf see their own lives reflected, and find themselves searching for a different path in a cold time.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Roland Schimmelpfennig’s literary novel (translated from German by Jamie Bulloch) is an icy affair reminiscent of the movie CRASH in that its disparate cast are drawn together by a random event but despite its clean, cool prose the story itself left me cold as the wide cast prevented me from feeling close with any specific character and the downbeat notes left me depressed, while I didn’t know enough about Germany to comprehend the allegory.
ONE CLEAR ICE-COLD JANUARY MORNING AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY was released in the United Kingdom on 5th April 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
