DAY ZERO

In good health – but not cured. That is Nina’s diagnosis after surviving leukaemia. In her early twenties, to Nina this suggests: Don’t you dare rejoice too soon. The illness has changed everything anyway. She and her best friend Bahar have fallen out, her little brother has discovered religion in a big way and Nina has more trust in a game of chance than in her own body. How can she engage with life in a confident way?
After a year in hospital she initially moves back to her small-town family home where at least her old school-friend Isabelle hasn’t changed – she is as reassuringly unreliable as ever. But then Nina meets Eric who broaches the subject of illness with ease and openness. Nina feels herself falling in love far faster than her fear of a relapse can cope with. So she tramples on such dreams and kicks them into the long grass. Until, in spite of herself, she discovers an urge to fight for Eric, to restore her friendship with Bahar – and to make her peace with life and living. Has it come too late for Nina, this recognition that every day she hesitates may lessen her chances of happiness?

› A love story between two young people who already have some battle-scars from life: intense with a strong, humorous first-person narrator.

› Catharina Junk received the prestigious literary award of the City of Hamburg for this project.

› English sample translation available.