THE RIVER AND THE SEA

"Did she collect seashells on the beach, watch the screeching seagulls, and lie in the sand?"

Natascha Wodin takes us to the dark side of life, to the outsiders, the lonely, and the wounded: Her narrator traces a path from Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, where her mother grew up, all the way to the Regnitz River in Franconia, the river where her mother took her own life. Elsewhere, she observes a neighbor literally rotting away in her dilapidated house, and in Sri Lanka, she encounters extreme social misery and a threatening, devouring nature. In another story, the fate of an unknown person unfolds – a mentally ill patient living in a clinic in the Fichtel Mountains. The narrator sends him a message to this "darkest German forest," leading to first a pen pal friendship and then to a love relationship anchored by the unifying and saving power of music.

With mastery and a sense of urgency, Natascha Wodin narrates the experience of being a stranger in one's own life, offering her characters a home within literature.

"Natascha Wodin's books ask, question, explore, and adopt a distinctive narrative stance that draws readers into the burning heart of political and human depths." Joseph Breitbach Prize jury