Tag Archives: German Novel

Lucy Fricke – Das Fest/The Party (2025)

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It’s city week and my choice fell on a book set in Berlin – Lucy Fricke’s Das Fest/The Party. Fricke is a very successful German author and has written a few bestsellers, one of which, Töchter/Daughters, has been translated. I was one of those who absolutely didn’t like Daughters. It was marketed as something literary, yet it was at best mediocre chick lit. Nonetheless, I felt like giving this one a chance because I liked the premise. Jakob, a once successful film director, is turning fifty. Not exactly an event he feels like celebrating. His film success is long gone. He hasn’t had a real relationship since his divorce and other than his best friend Ellen there don’t seem to be that many people in his life.

Ellen can’t accept this, can’t accept his despondency and turns up on his door step with a bottle of champagne and a secret plan, which Jakob will discover slowly during the course of the day. Unbeknownst to him, she has contacted the people who were once important to him. One after the other will “magically” turn up and together they take trips down memory lane.

Jakob has always lived in Berlin and the day is also an exploration of his old haunts, places where he used to hang out, where he used to live. Like any big or smaller city, Berlin has changed considerably during the last decades. Gentrification is rearing its ugly head everywhere but there are still places with the old magic and Jakob is happy to discover those. Those are places where people live a little differently from everyone else, adopt a more alternative lifestyle.

I had hoped that Berlin would figure a bit more prominently but I knew it wasn’t a real “Berlin novel”, just a novel set in Berlin.

The Party was praised for being realistic, melancholy, but ultimately uplifting. That’s not wrong. There’s also a love story and Jakob is able to make peace with a few complicated relationships of his past.

Sadly, I liked this even less than Daughters. Daughters had a few funny moments, bordering on slapstick, but the humor in The Party is pure slapstick and, in my opinion, not really funny at all.

I didn’t mind reading Das Fest as the idea and the themes were appealing. These big birthdays are so often not as joyful as they should or could be. At times, there’s also immense pressure to celebrate them in a big way. Not wanting to participate and just let the day go by like any other is something I can relate to. So I liked this aspect but overall the novel is just a bit to cutesy for me.

Before you tell me I should have picked THE Berlin novel, here are the links to a four part readalong of Berlin Alexanderplatz, which took place during German Literature Month 2019.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Daniel Glattauer: Every Seventh Wave (2011) aka Alle sieben Wellen (2009) The Sequel of Love Virtually

Posted in E-Mail, Epistolary Novel, German Novel, Literature, Novel by

Every Seventh Wave

A while back I wrote about Daniel Glattauer’s Love Virtually which has been released meanwhile. I just saw that the sequel, Every Seventh Wave,  will be published this year as well. Usually I include the amazon blurb at the beginning of my posts but this one  contains too many spoilers of the first book.

Like its predecessor, I have read Alle sieben Wellen when it came out in Germany. For all those who like Love Virtually, they can look forward to a sequel that is very close to the first book. The story of Leo and Emmi, their e-mail exchange goes on. More passionate and more intense than before. And still they ask the same questions. Should they meet or should they not? To the somewhat playful tone of the first book Glattauer adds a bit of a darker undertone. I cannot say too much or it would be a spoiler.

Even though I didn’t like the idea of a sequel at all and if I had had something to say, it wouldn’t have been written but since it was and I liked the tone of the first book, I had to read this one as well. And it isn’t disappointing. It is as witty, charming, thought-provoking and enjoyable as the first.

All those who thought that Emmi and Leo’s story shouldn’t finish like it did in Love Virtually will enjoy this book. All those who loved the style of Glattauer the first time, will enjoy this as well. Although Love Virtually can be read on its own, this one can not. If you want to read Glattauer, you should start with the first one.

I have no problem with the translation of the title this time, it is pretty literal but I still like the German cover better.

The Austrian author Daniel Glattauer has written quite a few books that have been successful in Germany and other German speaking countries. Like so very often none of them has been translated. Should you read German you can find more information on his website.

Daniel Glattauer: Love Virtually (2011) aka Gut gegen Nordwind (2006) A German Novel in E-Mails

Posted in Books, E-Mail, Fiction, German Novel by

Love Virtually

“Write to me, Emmi. Writing is like kissing, but without lips. Writing is kissing with the mind.’

It begins by chance: Leo receives emails in error from an unknown woman called Emmi. Being polite he replies, and Emmi writes back. A few brief exchanges are all it takes to spark a mutual interest in each other, and soon Emmi and Leo are sharing their innermost secrets and longings. The erotic tension simmers, and it seems only a matter of time before they will meet in person. But they keep putting off the moment – the prospect both excites and unsettles them. And after all, Emmi is happily married. Will their feelings for each other survive the test of a real-life encounter?

And if so, what then?

Love Virtually is a funny, fast-paced and utterly absorbing novel, with plenty of twists and turns, about a love affair conducted entirely by email.

I have already read Love Virtually because the original came out in Germany in 2006. I even read it in hardback, a rare thing, as I was so curious to find out what the hype was all about. I must say, I have not often been this engrossed. You start it, you read and you do not stop before the end. After, let’s say, two –  three pages you will have forgotten that this is a novel, you will be sure that you are reading a real e-mail exchange between two people. That is quite an achievement. I am really  pleased to see that Glattauer’s book will be published in English in 2011.

Emmi writes accidentally to Leo and they keep on writing to each other because each one likes the tone of the other’s e-mails. And because they both imagine each other. Without knowing each other they develop crushes. There is only one little complication. Emmi is happily married. It seems only natural she does not want to meet Leo. What if he was anything like the man she imagines? Still she can’t stop writing. They tease and flirt and exchange their hidden dreams and wishes and get to know each other better and better. They also arrange a date without really meeting each other. They just both know that they are at the same restaurant at the same time. Later they compare their impressions and try to find out if they  did recognize each other.

Leo and Emmi are both  intellectuals. This is important to know, as that determines the nature of their exchange. Even though they tease and flirt, they philosophize and analyze a great deal too.

If you want to find out if they really meet you have to read the novel. Daniel Glattauer wrote a sequel (Alle sieben Wellen 2009) that has been published a while back. It is also very good but I would have preferred if he had stopped after Gut gegen Nordwind. The ending of Love Virtually is very special. The sequel spoils it.

I think the idea of having a crush on someone you only know by e-mail (I know the movie with Meg Ryan, but Love Virtually is very different) is interesting and Glattauer provides an in-depth analysis of this premiss. Love Virtually is highly entertaining but still deep. Personally I like epistolary novels a great deal. This is just a variation on the same theme.

A word on the English marketing of this book. Just have a look at the German cover. Don’t you think it looks much nicer? I can understand that the title was problematic. Gut gegen Nordwind would have to be translated as “Good against the North wind”. This is far more poetical than Love Virtually but does this mean anything outside of Germany? The North wind is a bit like the Californian Santa Ana winds, but cold, very cold. He does also carry a nervous energy and is a bit depressing. I must admit, I am not sure I would have bought the book with the title Love Virtually and such a cover. What do you think about the covers and the titles?