Monsters Like Us

“This is a novel set in the former Eastern Bloc, but this time in East Germany (the German Democratic Republic), where author Ulrike Almut Sandig is from. It’s a part of the country that was and still is dug up for open-cast coal mining. The novel is about state violence as well as private violence within the family, and what they do to Ruth and Victor, the girl and boy experiencing them. There’s a horror beneath the children’s otherwise idyllic childhood memories. Ruth immerses herself to an unhealthy extent in music while her friend Victor becomes a neo-Nazi. It’s very topical. This was quite a common thing after the end of communism in East Germany—there was a wave of neo-Nazi violence in the 90s, reflective of that fearful atmosphere at the time—and we’re seeing that rise again now.” Read more...

The Best 21st-Century German Novels

Katy Derbyshire, Translator