My rating: 4 out of 5
Dirk Kurbjuweit has written a well-crafted literary novel that bounces around the life of the semi-autobiographical character Randolf, his highly strung but intelligent and gorgeous wife Rebecca, and their two children. He follows their turmoil as Dieter Tiberius, the downstairs neighbour, becomes more and more sinister, appearing to threaten his wife and their children. He explores what it means to be suspected of a serious crime, of abusing your kids, how you doubt yourself and your wife, and how you overreact to compensate against those vile accusations.
This is one of those books where you’re told the ending at the beginning – the story then fills in the details that led to that conclusion. For me, I wanted to understand what made the protagonist, a self-declared middle class pacifist architect, take the action that he and his family did. Yes, I can appreciate you want to defend your property, and yes, who wouldn’t take huge steps to protect their loved ones, but, and this is a big but, other options are always available – even something as simple as moving house. Because the ending was so fatal, I wanted (needed) that build up to be so fraught, so despicable, that no other outcome would be possible.
I kept reading, hoping that some event would occur that would tie his hands and force him down that course of action but sadly, this wasn’t the case – I didn’t feel that Randolf could justify his deeds, regardless of the threat posed by Dieter, and that, for me, broke the magic of the book.
Still, this is well written, excellently translated, and thought provoking, so a solid 4/5.
Book supplied by Netgalley for an honest review.
See Goodreads review.