#GermanLitMonth book six completes my perfectly balanced pattern: representing Swiss woman is Martina Clavadetscher, with Knochenlieder. This is a wonderfully strange book. Most obviously, it’s a novel written (pretty much) in verse. That is, there are line breaks, and while there are no formal limits of rhyme or scansion, there’s a frequent focus on the words themselves:
Die nächsten Kilometer
besteht der Anstieg
aus Tragen und Fragen,
und für Jakob vor allem
aus Fragen Ertragen.Das Geräusch klettert vom Raumraum bis in den Traumraum.
There are strong affinities with the work of Anne Weber — based on what I’ve already read, Annette, ein Heldinnenepos in terms of the novel-as-poem, and Tal der Herrlichkeiten for the fairytale texture. The book is in three sections, very different in milieu and approach, but each combining a dystopian setting with fairytale and ultimately all tied together (with some work from the reader) in an effective story.