Footsteps on the paving stones, noises at the door. A perfectly normal evening was just beginning, but now, all of a sudden, everything is different. Mizzi is dead. She jumped in front of a train.
Nadine tries to piece together what happened to her daughter, whom she never really understood. And the deeper she digs – including inside herself – the angrier she becomes. Angry about her marriage, which has become so lacklustre, and her husband Frank, who only grows more distant from her in his grief. Angry about her father, who is now highly dependent on her but who was once so domineering and made her feel, as a child, that she was never quite good enough. Angry about Mizzi’s apathetic husband Jonas and about Nadine’s boss Christian, a mediocre lawyer. And then, when Nadine learns that Mizzi had a secret lover who must have been involved in all this in some way, it’s as if a bomb has gone off inside her. Nadine casts an unsparing eye over her life, and finally realises the role she played in it as a daughter, a wife and a mother. She has always wanted to do right by everybody, always played by the rules. But no longer. Mizzi is dead, and Nadine is out for revenge.
In this brilliantly observed novel full of profound humour, Katrin Seddig tells the story of a woman who declares war on the world. This book is as gripping as a thriller, and wonderfully wicked.
“Katrin Seddig manages to expose the wounds and the needs of her characters in a way that is brutal and kind, funny and truthful all at once – whilst still allowing them to preserve their dignity … The author is a master of the craft of atmosphere.” The jury of the Hubert Fichte Prize
“Incredibly well written.” RBB Kultur about Das Dorf
