Hinrich takes his existence at face value. His wife, on the other hand, has always been more interested in the after-life. Or so it seemed. When she dies of a stroke, Hinrich goes through her papers, only to discover a totally different perspective on their marriage. Thus commences, a dazzling intellectual game of shifting realities.
How do you picture the afterlife? Like a cold dark lake you have to cross? Do you picture how you will be surrounded by loneliness and obscurity and that you will know before you even start to dip into those icy waters that you will never make it across and that you will die a second time while attempting to reach the other shore?
Probably this is not your idea of the next world but it is Doro’s. The thought of it terrifies her and when she confides in Hinrich, telling him of her terrors, they form a bond and eventually become a couple. Before she reveals herself, Hinrich, a professor of sinology, secretly pines after Doro the young specialist of the I Ging who occupies a room on the same floor of the department of sinology. While he is very much in love and provides her with a pot of green tea every afternoon, she doesn’t seem to care for him at all. But suddenly one afternoon, to show Hinrich what her idea of the after world looks like, she takes him to an art museum and shows him a painting. The painting isn’t named but from the detailed description it seems they stand in front of Böcklin’s Toteninsel. Of course Hinrich doesn’t take her fears seriously. This is as much mystical rubbish to him as the I Ging. Still he promises her that he will wait for her on the other shore.
However these days are long gone and the memory of the beginning of their story provides only one part of the things Hinrich will remember on a beautiful autumn morning on which, like every day, he gets up late only to find Doro already sitting at a table and correcting what he has written the day before. The moment he enters the room he realizes something is wrong. The room is filled by an overpowering smell and the fact that Doro sits here correcting something is a little strange as well as he hasn’t written anything in a long time.
What we finally discover through Hinrich’s eyes is the fact that Doro has died inexplicably and that the text she not only corrected and annotated but tried to finish as well is an old fragment of a novel that Hinrich has written some thirty years ago. It is the story of Marek the drunkard who gets involved and hurt by a beautiful waitress. Marek is as opposed to Hinrich as can be imagined.
From the moment of the discovery of her body until the very end of the novel the book takes a few very surprising twists and turns.
Hinrich and Doro’s story alternates with the parts of the fragments of the novel that Hinrich rereads. The tone of the interwoven texts is very different. The novel uses outdated slang, the other parts are written in a very polished and literary German.
Hinrich, a man who had extremely bad eyesight and could hardly see a thing, decided late in life to have a laser operation. To be able to see clearly has transformed him into a completely different person. Before his opperation he was dedicated to Doro, content with a life filled with books that took place either at the university or at home. Since he can see he goes out in the evenings with his students, chats up waitresses and discovers a completely new side to himself.
What he didn’t know and discovers now through reading the annotations and the letter that Doro has left for him is not only that she knew about his affairs but also that she hated and despised him and that she has taken revenge.
I did absolutely not like this novel at first as I found Hinrich Schepp to be such a boring and narrow-minded character. But I should have known better when embarking on reading a book whose main character has such a name. Surely no one would choose a name like that for his protagonist if he wasn’t poking fun at him. All the infuriating and annoying bits about Hinrich’s charcter and his actions fall into place at the end and their meaning changes one’s view of Hinrich. One could even say that Hinrich becomes endearing.
As said before, the book has a few extremely surprising twists and turns to offer and from page to page we see things and people in a new light until, at the end, everything changes again.
There are a few painful moments in which Hinrich’s mask is ripped off and he finds himself exposed and ridiculed. Shame is one of the strong feelings that pervades the whole novella.
Next World Novella is a quirky book that touches on a lot of different things. It explores the fear of dying and death as well as marriage, love and self-deception. The most interesting aspect for me was the exploring of the ideas of an after life and the dimension added by the references to the I Ging, a text that I find highly fascinating. But also the discovery of how much “unlived” life there is hidden in an ordinary life is interesting. Every human being has a potential that would allow him or her to live many lives that would maybe look very different from the one chosen.
I have read the German book and insofar I cannot say much about the translation. I thought for a long time about the title and if Next World Novella is really how I would have translated Jenseitsnovelle. For different reasons I don’t think so. The sense is the same but I had a feeling “Jenseits” sounds more poetical than “Next Life”. The word “next” contains a very hard consonant whereas “Jenseits” has a soft and flowing sound. That is why I would have tended towards a title containing hereafter or after life. I’m sure Anthea Bell who is a renowned translator had her reasons. As for the rest of the text, I got the impression the German is more old-fashioned and mannered than the English translation.
All in all I can only recommend this book. It’s very different, surprising and intelligent.
Beauty is a Sleeping Cat 
This one sounds really, really good. Will check it out, thanks. I am particularly intrigued by the way he has to rewrite history after his wife’s death.
I would be very curious to see what you think of it, especially the ending. The intepretation and reintepretation of his life is extremely interesting.
Stunning painting, BTW.
Yes it is. When I was a child it was my favourite painting. We got one of the originals at the art museum here in Basel. He painted at least two and one is in Germany.
I’ve been intrigued by this since you mentioned it on my blog. I will have to look out for it now. And that painting is extraordinary – just overpoweringly evocative.
I stood in front of that painting very often. It is quite hypnotic. But I am sort of glad this is not the way I picture the after life.
I’m intersted to read what you will think of it. I would so like to discuss the ending!
I want to read all the Pereine novellas. Every time a new one comes out I think I really must buy them and catch up, as everyone seems to love them.
I am SO envious that you have several languages. I am stuck with English only, but I have a bit of a thing about how a narrative is transposed from one language to another. Should it be a literal word-for-word translation, or is there space for some “interpretation”, so that the reader of the translated version gets more of a sense of the ethos of the original? I never know what has been lost in translation, but I suspect that, usually, it is quite a lot.
There is only one I haven’t read so far as I couldn’t get the original (Barbal). I think she chooses her books well and carefully. They are all worth reading but I think I liked the Delius best so far. I am glad I can switch languages although many translators do a great job. I am very musical that’s why I would tend towards trying to keep the rhythm and the sounds of sentences and maybe not be too literal. But there has to be a case by case choice. Some things will always get lost, I’m afraid. It can’t be helped. In any case it is quite a fascinating topic.
It seems to start like Odette and Swann’s love story and marriage : on a misunderstanding based on art and imagination.
The after-life thing is rather a put-off for me (aren’t worms the surest thing about death?) but the idea of exploring the unknown potential of someone is intriguing. It reminds me of Kundera and the idea that we’d like to have drafts for our lives, which we of course don’t have.
I like the painting (Death Island, is that it?), it reminds me of Caspar David Friedrich.
What does Hinrich’s name mean ? (not found in dictionaries)
Island of the Dead, I believe but I don’t know how they call it in English. I see what you mean about Swann and Odette but when you read it, I assure you, Proust doesn’t come to mind. Worms? Aha. Not my position, or the afterlife bit wouldn’t have been so interesting (plus I Ging). But there is something for everybody in this novella. You have Doro with her convictions and Hinrich who is completely different. Hinrich Schepp does not mean anything but it is full of assonance. Hirn, Depp, … It does sound funny and makes you think of all sorts of words that are derogatory. This might be lost in the translations I don’t think they did change the name.
I like the idea of interwoven texts in a novel that deals with life and the afterlife in the way you describe. Interesting possibilities for such blurring of boundaries. Have yet to read any of the Peirene Press titles in translation, but I did read the Barbal title in Catalan several years ago and remember enjoying it–good luck finding a copy for yourself.
I think the Pereine Program is interesting. I can’t find the Barbal in Catalan, I already gave up. I could find it in Spanish but then I could as well read it in French. I might end up reading it in German or English.
Jenseitsnovelle is an amazing text. Every time you think you know what it’s about you find out you are wrong again. I am puzzled that German critics did not like it but it was my first Politycki. It seesm as if they did not get over his other books.
This sounds surreal…I’d loved to read this. Is this in German or English?
Btw, what is wrong with Hinrich’s name? you think his name is funny. I know a Heinrich in NBA (used to play in my fav team)
It does have a surreal quality, you are right. I read it in German but it has been trasnlated. Heinrich isn’t funn but Hinrich is funny. It sounds like “Hirn” which menas brain and Schepp sounds like Deppp which menas idiot. The guy is really dorky and the name tells you that right away.
I wonder will people understand the meaning of his name in a translated book
I was really wondering… I am not sure at all.
Did you see the book trailer for this one? It does set an interesting tone. My library has just gotten this and it is being processed so I hope to read it eventually. I read the Barbal and haven’t gotten around to writing about it, but now I think I have waited too long as stories start to fade from my mind far too quickly sometimes and that one was such a slim story.
I saw the trailer a long while back on the amazon.de but have forgotten by now. Yes, it is horriblen when you don’t write soon, the books drift away. I think I read too fast and am not concentrating properly. I need to remedy that.
Just finished this, and I will be reviewing it soon. I’m so glad you mentioned the issue of the title as I had the same feeling – although my thoughts centred more on the idea of ‘the other side’ part of the original German title (which could be taken in many ways, especially when you think of the ending…).
I’m very interested in your review. The translation of titles is always an issue. In the case of Hotschnig I found the choice very strange. In this case I could see why she chose it but I didn’t think it was satisfying. One of the biggest problems is the fact that German has a lot of composite words which can mean a lot of different things. I’m a very musical person that’s why I would always consider the sound of words as well.
“Other side” is another meaning that “next world” does not fully capture, I agree.
It is a wonderfully-entertaining book. I enjoyed it just as much the second time around when I was able to appreciate the significance of some of the language which I’d missed the first time around (like the word ‘Trugbild’, which is used in the scene in the art gallery…).
It’s a book to re-read, indeed. Entertaining and interesting which is a combination I like. Often literature is either the one or the other.
I can’t really remember “Trugbild”.
“Wie er sich ihr langsam zuwandte und sie durch seine dicke Brille vorsichtig anblinzelte, schien sie ihm ein Trugbild, das sich bei näherem Hinsehen in Luft auflösen könnte,…” p.24
How right he was 😉
Thanks for the quote. I remember now. Yes, this doesn’t fully reveal its meaning when read the first time.