In Germany, as anywhere in the intellectual (-related) world, there are many people repeating ad nauseam the same old tropes on topics of general interest, only for the sake of getting public attention, but there are also quiet, more intellectually productive and creative individuals whose achievements may be shadowed due to the noise of those with not too much to say. Nevertheless it is intellectually refreshing to discover books and authors not necessarily asked to express their opinion on almost everything, always delivering the same battle lines, but still writing and creating their works.
Thus, I was more than delighted to spend some days listening to the audio version of the debut novel by Dana Vowinckel, Gewässer im Ziplock. The book was published last August and as for now, is only available in German.
The action of the book has Germany in the background but the characters are not German. Margarita, 15yo, is born in Hannover, in an American-Israeli family. Her father is religious, a cantor in a synagogue in Berlin, while his mother, American by birth and a linguist, abandoned her as she was a little child, unable to cope with life in Germany. This summer, after a stay with her grandparents in Chicago, she is sent to spent some time in Israel with her mother. During a short time, during the summer vacations, Margarita is going through conflictual events and emotional challenges, not only getting to know her mother and secrets from her past that may dramatically change her perception of identity, but also is getting a different grasp of the world around - her first sexual encounter, body perception, starting to understand relationships (through her parents and grandparents interactions).
The book is intense and so are some of the characters - Margarita and her mother, Masha, in particular, and the women characters in general. The women characters do have an attitude and issues to deal with in the society or the family. Men, however, do lack a certain consistency and they are mostly hard to understand - especially Avi, Margarita´s father, both in emotional and religious terms.
My favorite character was definitely Margarita, assigned a clear voice and attitude. Her growing up experience within such a short amount of time sounds natural and relatable. The snippets of Jewish life building up the environment of the story fit naturally into the story.
Gewässer im Ziplock is definitely representing a different way of writing literature about Jewish life in Germany, in German. I hope to be able to discover this year more such individual literary voices, with definitely a lot to say within the Jewish literary stage.
Rating: 4 stars
