#GermanLitMonth book five is Sieben Jahre, by my Swiss gentleman for the month, Peter Stamm. It’s narrated by a Munich architect, within a framework of his telling an acquaintance “now” of various events between his student days and middle age. The narration to the acquaintance is subtly, but effectively blended with narration of other events to the reader.
This is a low-key novel in other ways: the characters and events are not exceptional, and the protagonist’s missteps are often more irritating than anything else. Stamm is merciless in relating the character’s self-pity as he descends into the hole he is making for himself, making for a test of the reader’s ability to identify. The fact that two characters are called Sonja and Sophie was also confusing for this listener to the audiobook — I’m not sure whether that’s a quirk of my brain and the format, or Stamm making a point about their everydayness.
This is not one of my favourite Stamm books, as may already be clear, but I appreciated the dissection of the characters’ loveless lives and the skill of the storytelling more as it went on. Christian Brückner is as always a brilliant performer of the audiobook.